How to be a Shifter
by altoy
Summary: Eren's titan shifting ability is revealed, and his life is put into the hands of the Survey Corps on the grounds that they can make use of him. Seeing his full potential, Reiner, Bertolt and Annie offer themselves as mentors to Eren. But what will happen when one mentor grows fond of her student? (ErenxAnnie, and sorry I suck at summaries)
1. Chapter 1 - The Beginning

"_So, Eren! We're seriously counting on you, okay?"_

The scene kept replaying in Eren's mind as he sat outside, waiting for one of Levi's squad members to lead him back to basement for the night. He wasn't sure what was more haunting: the message itself, or the pure fear that was etched into Jean's face as he spoke.

"Eren…" A gruff voice said from behind. Eren stood up and spun around, instinctively bringing himself into a salute. Much to his surprise, instead seeing the stern face of one of his superiors, he found himself looking at Reiner and Bertolt, the former of whom was holding out a mug.

"Reiner?" Eren asked, "What are you doing out here?"

Reiner gave Eren a pointed stare, "You've been out here for a while, just sitting there. It doesn't take a genius to know that something's the matter." He replied, "And drop the salute, you've been here longer than I have." He added with a smirk, causing Eren to look down and realize he still had a fist over his heart.

"Sorry about that," Eren said, "I'm used to getting slapped upside the head when I don't salute." Reiner gave him a pointed look. "Yeah, I just needed some time alone to think…"

"It's what Jean said." Reiner stated, already knowing the cause of his young friend's troubles. He held the handle of the mug out to Eren, "Drink this, it'll relax you." Eren took the cup and nodded, taking a sip.

"So what do you guys want?" Eren questioned, "Jean was right, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. I almost killed Mikasa, and I can't even remember." He hung his head down in shame, looking deep into the drink he was holding. Reiner looked over to Bertolt and nodded.

"Eren…" Bertolt began, "What if we had a way to help you control your titan form?" At that, Eren shot his head up.

"Wha- how?!" Eren asked, "What do you guys even know about this?"

"Reiner and I? Where we come from, Titan Shifting is a skill among warriors." He explained, "Most children in the homeland are taught to control this ability, at least to a basic level. The real prodigies are sent off and abroad to train and serve our people."

"So… Are you saying-" Eren began, only to be cut off by Reiner.

"Me, Bertolt and Annie are trained in this art." Reiner told him, "This wasn't an easy decision, not by a long shot. It should go without saying that you don't let anyone know about this. Not Jean, not Armin, not even Mikasa." He took a breath before continuing, "We will teach you how to control your abilities, we will help you seal the gate to Shiganshina. But, we need something in return."

Eren was still processing all of the information being given to him. He had known these two for three years now, and he's now learning that they've been holding this huge secret the whole time.

"Why are you just now telling me?!" He demanded, "We've been friends for years, and you never thought 'Hey! We should probably tell Eren and the others that we can turn into monsters!'"

Reiner looked at him pointedly, "Would it make a difference? Think about all that talk you made about how you wanted to kill every last titan. Why would we risk our asses just so we could put ourselves out in your crosshair?" He asked, "Besides, we didn't know you were a Titan Shifter until the fight at Trost. Which brings us to another question: how long have you known about your ability?"

Eren took a moment to think, "To be honest, I didn't even know what happened until after, when I was being charged with 'Treason against mankind.' It's all a blur, like a dream…"

Reiner nodded in understanding, "So I'm right to assume you didn't know how to shift until after it happened?" Eren nodded weakly, making Reiner put a hand to his chin. "This makes no sense, by this point in life you would have had to have transformed at least once, or at the very least know of your powers."

By this point Bertolt butted in, "Eren, we still need to know if you're willing to help us if we help you. I know you're confused, and you may not trust us, but we're still your friends."

Eren looked at Bertolt. While he was hardly any good at reading emotions, Eren could see the sincerity in his friend's words. After a while he spoke, "What do I have to do?"

Reiner smiled briefly, glad that things turned out favorably. He eventually smoothed his face, "We'll talk about that once we've got you accustomed to titan shifting. It all depends on how things turn out. Not to mention we need Annie to be involved with your training and our mission."

"Thank you, Reiner, Bertolt." He said, before pausing for a moment. "But, wait… How are you guys going to be able to train me without the others finding out about you three? And for that matter, how is Annie going to be able to train me if she's a member of the military police?"

"At night we'll go over the theories with you. We can assume that the Survey Corps wants you to understand how to use your skills so you can plug up the hole in Wall Maria without any accidents, so they'll probably be getting you to hone your skills." Reiner elaborated, "As for Annie, we managed to convince her to join the Survey Corps, but considering none of the top ten from our squad had opted for the military police, she's been getting some trouble from the higher ups."

Eren was about to ask how they convinced her to come along, but was stopped by a yawn. Bertolt chuckled and patted him on the back, "Come on, Eren. Get some rest."

As the three walked back to the castle, Reiner gave Eren a serious look. "Remember, Eren. What we've told you is between us. Nobody can know. If anyone asks, we were helping you get over what Jean said."

"Got it, Reiner." Eren responded, making his way down into the basement. Once he was out of earshot, Reiner and Bertolt exchanged looks.

"Are we sure we should trust him?" Bertolt asked, uncertainty in his voice.

"Even if he's not the one we're after, we owe it to help him control himself. You and I both know what they will do to him if they decide he's not worth their trouble." Reiner replied. Bertolt bit his lip, but conceded to Reiner's point.

* * *

Eren woke up to a heavy object being dropped on his chest. As he heaved from the weight of the object blinked his eyes open, he saw Levi staring at him with a bored expression on the other side of the room. Looking to his chest, he saw a crate, leaking what appeared to be sand.

"Alright, sleeping beauty. Get up." Levi said.

"What… Is this?" Eren managed to force out as he pushed the crate off his stomach.

"Sand. Maybe a few rocks." Levi replied matter-of-factly. "I'd say I'm not your babysitter, but the court ruling unfortunately says otherwise. So get up before I sic Hange on you."

Eren muttered darkly under his breath, trying to move the crate without spilling its contents over himself and the basement. Once he got out of bed, Levi climbed up the stairs, leaving Eren to get dressed.

A few minutes later, Eren walked into the dining hall, where several more tables had been laid out for the new members of the Survey Corps. Looking around, he saw Reiner and Bertolt sitting with Mikasa and Armin, all four of whom had their eyes trained on Eren. Making his way over, he sat down next to Reiner, across from Armin.

"You feeling better, Eren?" Reiner asked, "I made sure to scrap some extra for you. I'm honestly surprised you made it to breakfast."

"Much better now." Eren replied, "So what are you guys doing today?"

"We're going to be running through some basic scout training before the next mission." Armin explained, "I heard that Squad Leader Hange was going to run some more tests with you."

"What's the point of running tests on him?" Reiner asked, "We know he can turn into a titan willingly, he can grow back limbs, and wreck more shit than Annie when it's that time of the month." As Reiner finished his comment, Armin looked over to respond, only to seize up as absolute and unbridled horror grew on his face. Mikasa visibly paled as she tracked Armin's eyes, her mouth gaping wide as she looked over Reiner's shoulder. Bertolt and Eren exchanged looks, briefly turning to Reiner's confused expression before looking around.

Annie was standing behind Reiner, holding a plate of steaming eggs, staring into the back of Reiner's head with a terrifying intensity. By this point all eyes in the room were trained on their table, wondering what was about to unfold. Bertolt placed one hand on Reiner, using the other to symbol a silent prayer for his friend. Seeing this motion, Reiner slowly turned to Eren, knowing what was behind him, but hoping to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. For the first time in their three years of knowing each other, Eren saw a glimpse of fear in Reiner's normally strong-willed face.

"Eren?" He asked, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Yeah?" Eren replied, eyes darting between Reiner and Annie, the latter of whom was placing her plate on a nearby table before walking back to her previous position.

"Am I going to die?" As soon as the words left his mouth, a small hand grabbed his collar, violently tearing him from his seat and throwing him backwards. Before he hit the ground, Annie spun around and delivered a swift kick, launching him further backwards. Upon landing, Reiner rolled over, either unable or unwilling to stand. Annie walked back to the table she had placed her food on, causing the inhabitants to lean away as she picked up her plate. Her fury slowly dissipating with every passing second, she seated herself right next to Eren, who was fighting the urge to scoot away.

"A-Annie?" Armin stuttered, "What're you doing here?" To this, Annie merely pointed to the patch over her breast, the Wings of Freedom clearly embroidered on her uniform. As he looked at the patch, he noticed there were bits of torn cloth still clinging onto her jacket.

"Did you… Quit the Military Police?" He questioned, to which Annie nodded.

"As it turns out, the only real assignments we get there are to push around civilians and other members of the military. Not that they didn't try to get me to stay. With almost the entirety of our division's top ten joining the Survey Corps, they had to try and keep their quota." She deadpanned, pausing to take a bite from her eggs, "I probably wouldn't be here if Shadis didn't weigh into the debate."

Eren raised an eyebrow. "Shadis was there?"

Annie gave him a deadpan stare, "The last member of the southern division's top ten is quitting the Military Police to join the Survey Corps? Of course he was there, Eren. He was arguing that my enlisting in the MP 'was a waste of potential', and that if my transfer didn't get accepted, he'd ensure that they'd never get any new members from his division."

"Really?" Armin replied, "I never thought the Commandant would do something like that."

Mikasa took her turn to speak, "Remember, Armin, Shadis was the old Commander of the Survey Corps before Commander Erwin. It would make sense that he'd want his best to enlist in the branch."

Annie shrugged, "The how doesn't really matter. I'm here." She then turned to Eren for a moment, looking like she was about to say something, a brief spark of interest showing in her blue eyes. Sighing and shaking her head, she went back to eating her food.

Before Eren could get back to eating his food, he felt himself get grabbed from behind, causing him to jump up out of his seat. Turning around, he saw Hange staring at him with excitement and determination.

"Alright Eren, are you ready for the tests today?" She asked, pulling him close to her face. The others at the table leaned away from the scene taking place, each looking at Hange with varying degrees of confusion.

Eren gulped, still disturbed by her giddiness towards titans, "Um… I guess?" Before he could say anything else, he found himself getting dragged out of the room by the mad woman. As they left the room, the four left at the table continued staring at the doorway the two had exited through.

* * *

"I just don't understand what's taking him so long" Mikasa muttered, "They've been working since the morning, so why aren't they finished?"

"Well we don't know what they had planned, or what would happen to Eren. He could be out of it or hurt." Armin replied, instantly regretted bringing up that possibility, as she immediately shot up, anger and worry in her eyes.

"You've just got a way with words, Armin." Annie deadpanned as she made her way to the table. Shortly after Reiner and Bertolt made their way over, the former steering clear from Annie when he sat down.

"So, where's Eren?" Reiner asked, picking a seat next to Armin and across from Bertolt.

"I'm not sure." Armin told him, "But he'll probably be here soon." He then tried to change the subject, "So Annie, did you get things settled with the commander?"

Annie blinked for a moment.

_ "__Well, Ms. Leonharte, your record speaks for yourself. I'm sure we'll make great use of you." Commander Erwin said, placing down her file and holding out his hand, "Transferring to our branch, from the Military Police no less… You have my upmost respect."_

_Annie would've given an empty 'thank you' towards her new commander, were she not getting heavily disturbed by the man behind her thoroughly sniff her. Apparently, Erwin finally noticed her poorly masked discomfort and confusion, and let out a chuckle._

_ "__That's Mike Zacharias, one of my best squad leaders." He told her, "This is just a part of how he acquaints himself with new people." He pauses, "Though I seldom see him smell somebody with as much… Investment as he has now." As if that was his cue, he finished smelling her, nodding with a pleasant smile and hum._

She shrugged, "About what you'd expect."

The group idly chatted for a few minutes before Eren finally entered the room, clearly weary from the tests that had been ran on him. Once he seated himself down between Bertolt and Annie, he let his head hit the table.

"So, long day, big guns?" Reiner chortled, standing up and walking away from their table "I'll get you some stew." Eren merely groaned in response, not bothering to lift his head from the table.

"So?" Armin asked, "How were the tests?"

"At first it was easy, they just had me try to do basic motions and activities." Eren explained, looking up at his friend, "Then they checked how fast I can regenerate different injuries. At the end, they tried decapitating me, and I panicked when everything went black. Apparently I almost killed Levi after they cut my head off, and by that point I wound up ejecting myself from the titan, so they called it quits for the day." Eren heard a snort, and turned to see Mikasa with a vindictive smile on her face.

"Serves him right for what he did at the trial…" She said, before muttering darkly under her breath.

Reiner came back shortly after, placing a large bowl and spoon in front of Eren, "Come on, eat up. Being a beast is tiring work." After seeing Mikasa shooting a hateful look, he held up his arms, "I mean that in a good way!"

Eren grabbed the spoon and began eating his meal, albeit extremely awkwardly. Annie was the first to notice what was wrong, and immediately pointed it out.

"Eren, you're right handed." She stated simply.

"Oh, uh…" He trailed off, concern showing on his face.

"Show me your hand." She demanded. Hesitantly, Eren lifted up his right arm, which unlike his left was completely covered by the sleeve. Annie yanked the arm down, out of view from the others, and slowly rolled up the sleeve. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw a slightly steaming stump, but she quickly smoothed her face and rolled the sleeve back over the stump. "Well that explains why you can't use it."

Mikasa immediately shot up, only to be pulled down by Reiner, who looked over to Annie. "He just hurt his hand." She lied, partly calming down Mikasa. As Eren moved to pick up the spoon again, Annie grabbed it before him, getting a spoonful of the meal. Seeing the growing blush on his face, Annie's look hardened as she shoved the spoon in his mouth. "Don't get any ideas, Titanboy." She told him, "Reiner and I need to talk to you, and I'm not waiting till the stroke of midnight because you can't move a spoon properly."

Before Eren could protest or take the spoon back, Annie gave him another spoonful of food, this time slightly less forced. Deciding there was no point in fighting, he turned the rest of his body to face towards Annie.

* * *

"Connie," Jean whispered, nudging his friend, "Look."

"What?" Connie replied, turning around, seeing Jean pointing towards the other side of the room. Looking over, he saw Annie holding a spoon in Eren's mouth. "Is she-"

"Don't gawk right at them, dammit!" Jean told him, spinning Connie back around. "And don't talk so loud!"

"Sorry, sorry." Connie replied. Seeing Jean's face he lowered his voice, "Was she spoon-feeding him?"

"Looks like it," Jean muttered, "Not to mention earlier she was holding his hand under the table."

"Maybe I'm just stupid, but I never knew they had a thing…"

"No, that's just it." Jean muttered, "I never noticed anything either. Heck, I never saw them actually interact outside of training."

"So what, are you gonna tease Eren now?" Connie asked, earning a smack on the back of the head.

"Of course not, you idiot!" He cursed, "That's retarded for several reasons. One, Annie was able to drop _Reiner _twice. I'm not a suicidal bastard like Yeager. Two, Eren can turn into a _titan_ at will. He could probably transform and pile-drive me during a mission and claim it as collateral. And most importantly, three, Eren could convince Mikasa to never go out with me if I said anything."

"Still, gotta give him credit. I didn't even realize she was into anybody." Connie said, taking a sip of water, "Maybe he could give you a few pointers."

Jean snorted, taking another glance as Eren and his friends walked out of the room, Annie clearly trying to wedge herself between Eren and Mikasa.

After dinner, Eren led Reiner and Annie down to the basement cell which had been refurbished into his room. Once they knew they were alone, Reiner seated himself and Annie on a bench across from Eren, who opted to sit on the ground.

* * *

"So, before we get started, what happened to your hand that made you hide it from everyone?" Reiner asked.

Not seeing any harm in showing them now, Eren pulled down his sleeve, revealing the stump, which had slowly grown since he showed Annie. Reiner walked over to Eren and kneeled down, grasping the arm in his hand.

"How did you get this?" He asked, shaking the arm slightly for emphasis.

"When they were doing the tests, they uh… They cut of my titan's head and I sort of panicked. After that, I don't remember what happened. I apparently partially came out, but I was still stuck to the titan…" He trailed off, "They missed when they were cutting my right arm free."

Reiner nodded, "I suppose this gives us a starting place." He then stood up and began pacing around, looking for the right words. After a while he stopped and seated himself with Annie again. "As you've already noticed, as a titan-shifter you have the ability to regenerate like a titan. Usually when you're in your titan form injuries to your body heal themselves almost instantly, but this gets slowed when you're outside of it because you can't draw the same energy that a titan does to regenerate your body." He paused for a second, "However, you can speed up the healing process by focusing your strength on the wound. I really can't explain things more simply than that."

Eren stared blankly at Reiner for a few moments before looking down at his hand. He shut his eyes, focusing on where his hand should be, trying to force it into existence. After a minute of straining he heard a sigh, followed by a cold hand grabbing his arm. Opening his eyes, he saw Annie grasping onto his damaged arm, pressing her thumb below the stump with a finger pressing into the top. Eren held back a scream at the pain he felt in the flesh her finger was touching.

"Focus on the pain, Eren." She said sternly, "Forget about any other ache or pain in your body, just think about how much your arm hurts and where it's hurting." With every word he felt her finger pushing harder into his arm, causing the pain to increase.

Annie continued to look Eren dead in the eye, finger still pressing down on his injury. Eren felt a sudden spike of pain radiate in his whole arm, causing him to yank it away from her grasp.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Eren demanded, growing steadily more pissed off at his new 'teacher'. Reiner was currently staring at the two of them with an indifferent expression, while Annie was looking at him with a strange look. _She almost looks… Proud?_

"Maybe you should look at your hand before you get mad at me." She said, brushing her bangs back. Confused, Eren looked down at his arm, immediately being greeted by a fully regenerated palm, a thumb, and two fingers, with two more digits steaming and slowly, but surely forming. He looked back and forth between his hand and Annie, who currently had a small smirk at his shock and awe.

"Now finish the job." Reiner stated, leaning back against the wall, "Let the fingers that need to regenerate take priority in your mind. Those are the only two injuries that exist in your body."

Eren looked down and focused on the two digits, forcing all of his willpower into getting them to grow back. The steam coming from the digits grew thicker and bigger as glowing strands enveloped the air above them, forming bones, muscles, and skin. As the steam settled, he flexed his fingers, moving them against one another in awe.

"Congratulations, Eren." Reiner said, "You've taken the first step into becoming a true warrior."


	2. Chapter 2 - Honesty

Eren forced himself awake the next morning, hoping to avoid running into another rude wakeup call from Levi. Looking to his hand, he confirmed once again that it was there. As he flexed it, he chuckled at the dark irony of how he's now lost both hands. _One more screw-up and I'll have lost a full set._

Once he was dressed, Eren ran up the stairs to meet with Armin and Mikasa, only to be stopped when his chest came crashing into an outstretched hand that grasped onto his shirt on contact. He realized a moment too late that the hand belonged to Hange, who immediately grabbed Eren's right hand and looked at it with amazement.

"It grew back already?" She exclaimed, joy and wonder in her voice, "How does it feel? OH! How did it feel when it grew back? Did it grow back all at once? Did it hurt when it grew back?"

"Um…" Eren trailed off, coming up with a realistic cover-up. "It grew back when I was sleeping. I don't really know what happened."

"Oh, man…" Hange muttered, disappointed by the missing information. "Well, we should get you to Commander Erwin. Apparently there's going to be a meeting over something." With that, she released Eren and began walking.

"Wait, can't I get something to eat first?" He asked. In truth he wasn't that hungry, but after how little time he'd been able to spend with his old friends, he felt like he owed them as much of his free time as he could give.

Hange patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, Erwin's got an insatiable sweet tooth, I'm sure he'll have something stashed in there that he could part with." Looking down at his sullen face, she gave a frown. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll have some time soon to be with your friends." Still not getting a response, she sighed and looked forward as they walked in silence.

* * *

After several minutes of silent marching through the castle, the two eventually walked into a large study, which Eren immediately recognized as one of the rooms he had to scrub down a second time for Levi. Unlike before, the study had a large desk in front of the window. Erwin was seated behind the desk, hands folded as he stared at the two with a calm expression.

"Eren, how about you come and have a seat." Erwin said, waving towards one of the chairs in front of the desk. Eren exchanged a nervous glance with Hange, who appeared to be just as confused about the situation as he was. After a moment, he made his way to the chair and sat down, unsure of what he should be feeling.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here, so I'll just get right to it." Erwin began, "First order of business; that whole debacle yesterday when you were in your titan form. Would you care to explain?" Gulping, Eren was about to respond when Hange spoke up.

"Actually sir, if you are referring to the incident where he lost control, that was my fault." Hange said, seating herself next to Eren and receiving a quizzical glance from Erwin.

"How so?"

"We were testing the limits of Eren's sensory abilities in his titan form, and I decapitated him without warning." She explained plainly, "With an immediate loss of sight and hearing without any knowledge of what was happening, it was only natural that he would react the way he did."

"I see." Erwin responded, "Hange, you know that Eren is still learning to control his titan form. While he was in control at the time, he could have still gone on a rampage. It was too close of a call for you to make on such a short notice."

"I understand sir." She replied, "But we do have one bit of good news that came from that. In retrieving Eren from his titan form, we accidentally cut off his right arm just below the elbow. As you can see now, his arm is fully regenerated and functional. This shows us that he is capable of regeneration even outside of his titan body, though the extent of his control over this is unknown, as is the nature of the regeneration." Eren bit his lip, knowing full well how his arm regenerated.

Erwin nodded, "This makes things easier for us in terms of keeping Eren's status as a valuable asset. Now that we know that he is capable of repairing himself even outside of his titan form, we have far more leverage to keep him as a member of the scouts."

Eren breathed a sigh of relief, only to remember what the commander said earlier, "Wait… What else am I here for?" He asked.

Erwin looked to the other door in the room, "You can come in now." After a few moments, the door opened as Annie walked into the room, stopping behind Eren and Hange with an uncertain look on her face. "Hange, this is Annie Leonhart. She came to me early this morning, saying she needed to talk with you, myself and Eren." Eren's eyes widened as he realized what she was going to say.

"Pleasure to meet you." Hange said, standing up and reaching out to shake the tiny blonde's hand. Hesitantly, Annie shook the hand, finding herself being ushered into the empty seat.

"Now, Miss Leonhart." Erwin began, "What was it you wish to discuss?"

Eren noticed Annie tense up, her pale skin turning even lighter as she looked for a way to begin, after a few moments she took a deep breath and began talking.

"Before I start, I need to know that you'll let me finish before you make any decision, and that you'll keep this quiet." Erwin nodded as soon as she finished speaking. Once again, she breathed, knowing that she had to get the hardest part over with. "I am a titan shifter."

As soon as the words left her lips, a deafening silence fell upon the room. Eren stared wide-eyed at her, still wondering if he was dreaming all of this. Hange was almost equally stunned, her mouth gaping slightly as her eyes bore a look of confusion. Erwin's eyes widened momentarily as she plainly stated what she was, but almost immediately smoothed over his face.

Annie herself had managed to shape her face into her usual calm, emotionless expression, but beads of sweat were falling down her face, with her heart almost audible as it thrashed around in her chest. She cursed herself for following through with her plan, knowing that it was well within Erwin and Hange's right to kill her on the spot. Momentarily her eyes flickered to Eren, and while he already knew the truth, she was still curious as to how his face also read concern for her.

A minute more ticked by, with Annie growing increasingly uneasy. She half considered jumping through the window and making a break for it, if the fall didn't cripple or kill her. She was beginning to formulate an escape plan when Erwin finally spoke.

"Why are you telling us?" He asked, looking at her with a perfect pokerface. Annie gulped involuntarily. _They already know what I am._ She cursed inside her head. _Why can't I talk? This should be the easy part now…_

"I have experience in my titan form." She finally said, "I believe it would be a benefit to Eren Yeager and humanity that I teach him how to control his titan shifting abilities."

"So what you're saying is that you are willing to risk putting your life on the line to suggest that you teach Eren?" Erwin asked, receiving a quick nod from Annie, "Now, would you mind telling me your intentions?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, looking around to Eren and Hange for help, only to see that the two of them were still getting over the shock of things.

"I'm sure you know about the Colossal and Armored Titan." Erwin explained, "It's been conjectured that they're also humans with the ability that you and Eren have. What guarantee do we have that you aren't one of them, or someone that was working with them?"

Annie waited for a moment, knowing this question would come up, and having her answer ready. "For your first question, there's a core issue: my gender. Unless I'm mistaken, I am a girl. This translates to my titan form, which has… Ugh, _anatomy_ to match." At this Eren and Hange both turned a bright shade of red at the implications, "As for your second question, I haven't been in my titan form for six years, long before the fall of Wall Maria. There are also no reports of a third titan involved with the breakdown of the walls. I highly doubt the records would skip over a female titan, even if it wasn't involved with the attack."

Erwin seemed satisfied by the response he received, but there were still several unknowns, "You say you have experience with this ability, 'titan shifting' you call it?" Annie nodded to his question, "How did you learn to use this ability, and what do you know about how people get it?"

Annie tilted her head at the second part of his question, "I was taught how to use this ability by my father, who was also a titan shifter. As for how the ability is passed on, I don't know. My father taught me all I know, and I haven't seen him since the fall of Wall Maria." As she finished her last sentence, her eyes widened and she choked up for a moment, "I… I don't even know if he's still alive…"

Erwin folded his hands in front of his mouth, hiding a sympathetic frown, but he knew he wasn't through questioning her. After giving Annie a few moments to collect herself, he continued, "My condolences. However, you've yet to tell us your intentions. What made you decide to help Eren, and why you decided to come to us to do so?"

Annie felt her heart skip a beat from the question. She couldn't give a reason for why without revealing her mission and singling out Reiner and Bertolt as titan shifters. Of course, at this point she was had deviated far from their original plan by doing this, and she had her own reasons for doing so. "Eren was one of the few people I've acquainted myself with since my enlistment in the military, and was the only one to treat me with respect and admiration as an equal without being scared of me." _Technically not a lie_, she thought before continuing. "Most of the others died in the battle at Trost from combatting the titans with a shitty defense strategy. The military police and general public would likely want his head on a stake if he can't prove his worth. I'd rather teach him and risk my own life than watch him get executed by some mindless cowards because he wasn't useful enough in their eyes." _And if he dies, then I won't have a home to return to._ She added mentally.

Erwin looked at her for several minutes, his calm and collected expression chisling away at the remenants of Annie's bravery. Finally, he spoke, "Your reasons are noble, Miss Leonhart. I accept your request to teach Eren Yeager, and I will make sure that this information is known to only those necessary." Seeing her face pale, he continued. "I will not be reporting this to the Military Police or the Central Powers. However, there will be some rules set in place for you. Do you object?"

"No, sir." Annie replied, eased by his promise, but wary about what the terms may be.

"Good." Erwin said, "First off, you will be moved from your current residence into the basement with Eren. Depending on how you training him works out, moving back out can be negotiated for the two of you. Second, you may only transform outside of missions when you are training Eren or when Hange is running tests on you. I will not regulate your transformations during missions beforehand, as unpredictable events may occur that will require your titan abilities. I also request that you make sure Eren in his current state does _not_ transform during missions unless the situation demands, due to the risk of him losing control in his titan form. Third, you are to follow your superiors' commands during missions in regards to your titan shifting, and must inform them when you are going to transform. You cannot overrule their command to not transform unless the situation demands and they are unable or unwilling to rescind their prior command, but you may overrule their command _to_ transform when it poses a threat to yours or Eren's life. Fourth, you are not allowed to leave the grounds of this castle without the expressed permission of myself and two other Squad leaders, where you will be accompanied by at least one member of Levi's squad. Fifth, you are to allow Hange to run tests on you as she pleases, when she pleases. You will also give her any and all knowledge you have of your abilities. Should you break any of these rules, you will be arrested on the spot and put on military trial. Do you accept these terms?"

Annie stayed silent, still trying to process the terms Erwin set for her. Once she was caught up, she gave a single nod. "I accept, sir."

Erwin smiled for the first time in the meeting, "Good. I'm glad that you came forward to work with us. With the two of you working together, we could very easily turn the tides on this war." Annie felt a pang of guilt that she was putting her own reasons before their cause, but nodded nonetheless. "Now, is there anything I could do for you three? I must be on my way to Trost."

As if on cue, Eren's stomach grumbles, causing him blush and look away from the others. Annie smirks for a moment, before her own stomach begins to rumble, causing her to look down and let her hair drape back over her eye. Smiling at their reactions, Erwin takes their silence as a 'yes', and reaches into his desk, pulling two rectangular objects wrapped in foil. Eren's eyes widen as he recognizes what he's looking at, while Annie tilts her head in confusion as the objects are pushed towards them.

"What are these?" She asks, to the shock of all three.

"What?!" Eren exclaims, "You're joking, right?"

Annie took the bar in front of her, peeling the foil away to reveal the smooth bar of candy. She looked over to Eren, who was staring intently at her with his own look of confusion, as if she had committed a cardinal sin by not knowing what chocolate was. Looking back at the bar in her hand, she shrugged and took a small bite out of it, unsure of how it would taste. As soon as the chocolate hit her tongue, her eyes widened and a huge smile spread across her face.

"This is the best thing I've ever eaten!" She exclaimed, quickly eating the rest of the bar. Erwin and Hange chuckled at her childlike reaction to the treat, while Eren was watching her in wonder, having never seen her so emotional. Soon enough, she was done, most of the excitement gone, but still wearing a small smile.

* * *

"Alright, my lovelies!" Hange announced as the three of them began their ride away from the castle, "Now that we've got somebody with more experience on this subject, I'm sure we can finally make our way back on top!" Annie and Eren exchanged looks, but kept riding as Hange went on with her one-sided conversation.

After an hour of riding, the three dismounted their horses along the edge of a forest, well out of sight of their headquarters. Once they were settled in, Annie decided to speak up, "Should I start now?"

Hange waved a hand, "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm just observing for today." She said, sitting down and pulling a notebook and pencil out, "I'll step in if I need to know something or if you step out of line, but for now you have the floor."

Annie nodded, turning her attention to Eren, "So first off, what do you know about transforming?" She asked.

"Um… I know that the trigger is to bite my hand, but I need to have a goal in mind when I do it, or the next action I do that requires any effort will make me transform on accident." Eren replied, causing Annie's eyes to widen at the implication of the second bit.

"That's the basic way, yes." She explained, "But I should tell you now that any self-inflicted or major injury can work as the trigger. You can poke yourself with a needle or bite your tongue, and as long as you have the intention of transforming when you hurt yourself, that requirement is fulfilled. In the case of major injuries, I believe it's one of your body's last forms of self-preservation, and will always cause you to transform with full control, though your memories before and during the shift will be messed up."

"What about accidentally transforming? Is there a way to stop it, or will I always transform when I get hurt and try to do something?"

"If you don't intend on hurting yourself, it doesn't fulfill the requirement. Likewise, if somebody else jabs you with a pencil, or if you stub your toe and draw blood, it doesn't fulfill the requirement. However, if you willingly hurt yourself, even without a goal in mind, that you will transform the second you exert effort to perform an action." Annie explained, walking back and forth in front of Eren.

"What about if I want to transform, but don't have a specific goal in mind?" He asked, "With Hange's tests, we've had to have me transform on really weird goals, like 'brush my hair', and 'run around in circles for a minute.' How do I just transform, and how do I stay in control?"

"Well, to just passively transform without a goal is impossible without already knowing how to maintain control." She replied, "When my father was teaching me, I tried to transform with the goal of being a titan. The first thing I did was try to kill him." Eren gasped, but she continued, "Now, I can transform with that goal, but I never do because it becomes more difficult to focus on a task."

"So… How do I keep myself from losing control?" Eren asked, wanting to learn this so he would never have an accident like what happened with Mikasa.

"When you transform, you cannot have any doubts about your goal, you cannot be feeling any anger, and you must not be thinking about anything other than the goal you're transforming for." Annie said, "If you have doubts or can't focus, your mind becomes clouded, and you go unconscious, leaving your titan to begin running on instinct. If you're angry about something, you're going to lash out at it almost immediately.

"I get it, so I need a clear mind to keep control." Eren stated, hoping he was understanding Annie.

"Not exactly. That would make it difficult to transform in emergencies. What you need to do is prioritize the goal you're transforming for above everything else, and you need to keep emotions out of your goal." She corrected. "Now, are you ready to try and transform?"

"Yes!" Eren said, moving his hand to his mouth, only to receive a slap upside the head. "Hey! What was that for?"

"You were going to focus on being a titan when you transform, and you're too close to me to transform." She deadpanned, pulling a ring out her pocket and putting it on. "I'm going to transform first, and I want your goal to be keeping quiet and looking at me." With that, she began walking away from Eren. Once she was a safe distance away from him and Hange, she held her arms out, with her right thumb brushing across the ring, and suddenly striking her thumb against it. She was immediately enveloped by a bright orange explosion, and Eren watched in wonder as he saw her rising up through the steam and smoke, sinking into the back of a skinless mass of muscle as her titan began forming. Soon enough, Eren found himself looking up at a gigantic titan with some resemblance to the girl inside, with large gaps in her skin showing the muscles underneath, the significance of which were beyond him. Feeling confident, Eren raised his thumb to his mouth, remembering the goal Annie gave him, and bit down, feeling the familiar sensation of himself getting enveloped by the new body.

After a few moments of darkness, his vision opened up once again, as he saw himself looking through the eyes of his titan form. One thing he noticed immediately was that his mouth felt almost welded shut, and his gaze was fixed on Annie, who was slightly shorter than he was, even in her titan form. Annie then jerked her head to the left, moving an arm up and pointing. Eren felt a resistance when he looked away from her at first, but was able to look in the direction she was pointing after a moment, seeing a sizeable fallen tree on the edge of the forest. Annie then began running towards the tree, making a note to steer away from Hange, who was currently alternating between looking at the two and scribbling down notes. Eren began making his way to the tree, trying to match Annie's speed with much difficulty.

Once the two reached the tree, Eren looked to Annie for her next instructions. Without any warning, Annie grabbed one side of the fallen tree and began to pull it up, looking at Eren. Making his way over to the other side of the tree, he hoisted it up, resting it on his shoulder, an action that Annie reciprocated once she turned around. Without warning, she began walking outside of the forest, leading Eren to a hill. Turning around again to face Eren, Annie lifted the tree off her shoulder, dropping her side to the ground with a loud thud, prompting him to do the same. With the tree on the hill, she began breaking branches off of it, throwing them into a pile. Once the trunk was picked clean, she looked over to her partner, pointing to the trunk and making a snapping motion. Eren kneeled down next to Annie and began snapping the trunk into segments, carefully laying them down so not to cause a small earthquake every few seconds. As soon as he finished, he saw Annie moving away from the piles and laying against the ground, her body beginning to steam as the nape of her neck popped open, revealing her in her human form. Mimicking Annie, Eren laid down next to her titan's body, and focused on pulling himself out of his nape. After a few moments, his vision darkened and he heard a tearing sound coming from behind, finding himself laying in a mass of flesh. Lifting himself up, he pulled his limbs free from his titan's nape. As he slid off his titan's back he turned towards Annie as she began walking back towards Hange, shocked to see her face was covered with red marks.

"Annie!" He shouted, "Your face!"

"Yeah, I know. It's where my face was connected to the titan. You've got them too. I'm surprised you haven't noticed." She replied offhandedly. Seeing him reach a hand up to his face, she added, "Don't touch them, by the way. It'll sting like hell if you do. Besides, they seal up almost immediately." Truth be told, the marks were slowly shrinking and fading away on her face.

Once the two were at the foot of the hill, they found themselves almost tackled down by Hange, who had an ecstatic expression. "That was amazing, you two! You were able to work together in your titan forms and move that tree and break it down!" She cried, pulling them both into a hug, "This is the best day in the history of science!"

Annie managed to pull herself away from Hange, looking at the woman like she grew a second head. Turning her attention towards Eren, who had managed to work his way away from Hange, she stared at him for a moment, not sure how she should speak to him. After a moment she walked back towards him and awkwardly wrapped her arms around him, patting him on the back. "You… Did good..." She said, not used to giving praise. In truth Eren had really impressed her by being able to work with her to accomplish a somewhat complex task as a titan, but even after teaching him her martial arts technique, she had no idea how to talk to him when she couldn't point out what he did wrong.

"Um… Annie?" Eren asked, snapping her out of her train of thought.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"You can let go now." Eren told her, making Annie realize she was still hugging him, causing her to immediately take her arms off of him. "So what do we do now?"

Annie thought for a moment, "We need to wait a while before we transform again, first of all. Though as far as today goes, I'd say we'll be fine ending our class early. You've proven you can stay in control of your titan form, and more importantly that you can do it without those primal roars you did in Trost. In the field, that's a sure way to let every titan in the area know where you and your team are."

Hange pulled out her notebook and began writing again. "Annie, you said that you guys needed to wait between transformations. What's the reason why?" She asked, causing Annie to cringe.

"Beyond the fact that transforming is taxing on the body, if you transform too many times in a short period of time, you start merging with your titan and losing control." She shuddered, remembering the stories her dad told of warriors who transformed too many times and wound up having chunks of their face and arms ripped off when they come out of their titans, "The best case scenario is you get parts of your body ripped off. The worst case scenario is you get stuck inside the titan."

Hange stopped writing, horror present on her face. "That's… Awful." She muttered, before looking down and writing a note to keep the two from transforming too frequently.

"Hange!" A voice called, causing the three to whip around. Annie immediately regretting discarding her body out in the open, as four soldiers dressed in scouting legion uniforms were making their way over to the two titan bodies. Eren recognized them immediately as Levi's squad, and let out a breath of relief, which seemed to help calm Annie down.

Eld was the first to make it to their group, dismounting his horse and clasping Eren and Hange's hands, giving a nod to each of them. He then looked down at Annie, his face turning stern.

"So, you're the other one, huh?" He asked, looking her up and down. Annie gulped and nodded, unsure of what he would do, only to be surprised when he clasped her hand, his face brightening up. "Welcome to the Special Operations Squad. I'm Eld, and these are Gunther, Petra and Olou."

"We're here to keep an eye on you guys, in case there's any trouble." Gunther explains, "Our team was originally created to protect Eren Yeager, both on and off the battlefield. Since you've got the same powers that Eren does, we're protecting you too."

"We're also here to make sure you don't step out of line!" Olou added, "So don't think you can get away with anything! We were ready to send Eren's head flying after he accidentally transformed trying to grab a _spoon_ of all things!" At this revelation, Annie's face suddenly darkened, shocking everyone as she marched towards him. Olou gulped as Annie stopped inches away from him, looking up at him with a burning intensity.

"Eren has one of the most sacred and difficult to master skills to exist in the past hundred years, and he only discovered his ability to use it when he lost an arm and a leg and proceeded to get **_EATEN_** by a titan. Furthermore, he was on the chopping block on several occasions because of idiots like _you_ who thought he was nothing more than a monster, and barely managed to **_scrape by_** with his life when the court decided that he would live on the grounds that he proved he was useful to them." Annie's voice was disturbingly calm, but venom was seeping from every syllable as she spoke, "Did you not think for a moment when he transformed that just **_MAYBE_** he didn't transform on purpose? That he might have enough self-preservation to go along with you idiots when everyone he met looked at him with fear in their eyes and a sword pointed in his direction even after he faced death countless times in a matter of **_DAYS?!_**"

Olou continued to stand his ground, but Annie could see she was making her point, "I'm here to keep Eren from getting walked to the gallows at the risk of destroying my own life." _Not that I'd have one if he died,_ "If that doesn't show that I'm willing to go along with you guys, then you really need to get your head out of your ass."

Silence filled the air as Annie and Olou stared each other down, before Olou nodded, "There you guys go," He said, "I told you I'd be able to find out whether or not she was really with us." Realizing that he had been egging her on, Annie clenched her fists, fighting the urge to swipe him off his feet.

To her amusement, however, Petra slapped him upside the head, "You idiot! She looked like she was about to murder somebody!" She then turned her attention towards Annie, "I'm sorry about Olou, he's just a bit pompous at times, but he did have a point. We're here to keep you from causing any trouble so you can stay out of trouble."

"And don't just think that we're heartless monsters for turning on Eren back then. We were having some afternoon tea after Hange's first failed experiment, when we were suddenly thrown in the air by a giant explosion, and next thing we realized Eren was connected to a titan's skinless arm and ribcage." Gunther told her, "We didn't exactly feel good about having to turn our blades on one of our team members, and once we found out the truth we all delivered our own punishment." With that, the four of them raised their right hands, where Annie could see light impressions from what looked like teeth marks.

"It's true." Eren said, walking over to Annie, who was looking at the bite marks on Olou and Petra's hands, "When Hange theorized that me reaching to pick up a teaspoon triggered my partial transformation, and that it had to be a complete accident, they all bit their hands as an apology."

"Of course, we were only doing our jobs!" Olou said boastfully, before growing a serious expression, "But that doesn't mean we felt nothing when we had to do it."

"All we ask is that you put faith into us, as we've put our faith into you two." Petra said, "We're a team, and we need to be able to trust each other above all else."

Annie stood there, feeling herself moved by their words. Part of her was to push them away, but another part was telling her to accept them. With hesitation, she gave her reply, "Alright."

With her response, the group cheered, and Annie felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind. Turning her head, she saw Eren hugging her, a warm smile on her face. As much as she wanted to knock him to the ground for violating her personal space, she could only find herself responding with a small smile as her face turned red.

_Dear god what have I done…_

* * *

Annie found the rest of the afternoon drinking tea and listening to Eren and the other troops talking about various topics, allowing herself to learn more about these people she would now be working with. Eld appeared to be the leader of the group when the Squad Leader wasn't around. He seemed to be the most levelheaded, but he wasn't above joking around. Olou was cocky and narcissistic, but had a record that backed him up. Petra seemed to be the older sister of the group, but frequently butted heads with Olou, and seemed to want to follow in their Squad Leader's footsteps to an almost infatuating level. Gunther had a stern, yet reasonable attitude about him, but he appeared to be a sort of buzzkill in comparison to the others.

Hange was an interesting case. Annie was conflicted between believing she was either easily excitable with her field of work, or if she was completely insane. While she clearly understood the dangers of titans and had an impressive head on her shoulders, her fearless attitude and even childlike wonder towards titans made her sanity questionable.

Annie had interacted with Eren before during training, when she would teach him her fighting style, but she had never had the chance to see how he interacted with his friends up close. She noticed immediately that he was extremely laid back and somewhat comical. It was almost fascinating to her how he seemed to put away the fact that they were soldiers in the midst of a one-sided war and managed to talk with the others like there wasn't a care in the world. It made Annie feel almost jealous in a way, seeing how he was able to laugh and joke around with the others while she spent the whole time sitting at the corner of the table, silently sipping tea and only talking when she was addressed to.

After a few hours of the group talking, they began to make their way back when the sun began setting, taking some of the branches Annie and Eren had gathered for firewood. The ride was relatively silent, until Hange rode up to Annie's side.

"Annie," Hange began, "When we get back to HQ, I'll help you move your things to the basement. You'll have a separate cell from Eren, and I'll see to it that we get some tarps to give some sense of privacy to your quarters. I'm sorry that you've got to downgrade yourself like this, but please understand that this is for everyone's safety, as well as your own."

"I understand, sir." Annie replied, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

Hange sighed at the cadet's response, "I just want you to know that once we've fully assessed the situation, we'll see about allowing you and Eren your own rooms."

"I understand, sir." Annie repeated, seeing the castle slowly approaching in her view.

A few minutes later the soldiers reached the stables, where they saw Krista, Ymir and Reiner sitting around and talking. Hange stopped Annie before she rounded the corner, ushering her to get off the horse. "Go through the front gate and wait in your old quarters. I'll be there once I put away your horse." She whispered.

Silently, Annie dismounted her horse and made her way through the castle grounds to the front gate, where she began casually walking to her room, knowing that sneaking or running through the halls would only draw attention to herself. Once she found her room, she began throwing her things into laundry bags, sitting down on her bed once she was finished to wait for Hange to come in.

After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door, and Hange peered her head into the room, "Come on, Eld's putting the tarps over your cell. Do you have your things packed?" Wordlessly, Annie stood up, placing a bag around each shoulder as Hange grabbed the last of her things. Looking over Annie's void expression, Hange decided against the idle chitchat as they made their way down to the basement.

Once the two reached the basement, Annie saw that covering one of the cells was now a thick, black sheet draped over the bars. Eld was currently busy tying a flap in one of the sheets to the door behind it, only looking up for a moment to acknowledge Hange and Annie's presence. After a adding a few final touches, he stood up and yanked on the flap, confirming that it wouldn't come loose accidentally. Standing up, he pushed the cell door open, shrugging, "It's not much, but you've got privacy, at least." He said, taking a moment to look at the bags she was carrying, "I wouldn't unpack yet. We'll be moving a dresser and bedside table tomorrow."

Walking into the cell, she saw that it was completely bare, with her bed in the corner being the only piece of furniture in the room. The black sheet seemed to block out all light from the torches outside, but the wall her bed faced into had a chandelier hanging on it, with four dishes for candles. Setting down her bags, she turned towards Eld, who was running a final look over the tarp. "Thanks." She said, sitting down on her bed. Eld nodded, walking out to get started on the other cell.

A few minutes later, Eren walked into her cell, seating himself on the other side of the bed. After a moment of awkward silence, Annie looked up to face him. "What do you want?" She asked, eying him warily.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing over here." He responded, "About earlier…"

"You've got to be more specific, Eren." She scolded, "Today hasn't exactly been laid back."

"When you started laying into Olou about the whole accidental shifting incident." Eren clarified.

"What about it?" She asked offhandedly, tugging her fringe over her eye.

"That was pretty cool," He admitted, his response slightly shocking Annie. "I never expected you of all people to actually come to my defense. And what you were saying to Erwin this morning, laying out your life to help me out."

Annie turned her head away slightly, trying to hide her flustered expression. Sighing, she decided to respond, "I have my reasons for going through with this, but I meant what I said back there. You may be overconfident, egotistical, childish, and your voice is kind of annoying when you're trying to be funny…" She trailed off, turning back to face him, "But you're alright."

Brushing off the insults, Eren smiled, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Annie in a warm hug. "Thanks, Annie." Annie gasped lightly as he hugged her, but soon reciprocated the hug, leaning her head against Eren's, trying hard to hold back the tears she felt coming.

_I'm sorry…_

**Please feel free to post a review, and give this story a follow for more to come!**

**Unrelated Fun Fact: the region where Attack on Titan takes place is relatively cold, rarely reaching over 86 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest months of the year!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Eggshells

Eren grunted, moving his eraser to wipe out another messed up line. He was currently sitting up in his bed, using his knees to prop up a notebook he was sketching in. Currently, he was on his fourth attempt at drawing Armin, a feat he found inexplicably difficult. Deciding to quit while he was ahead, he set his notebook down on the ground beside his bed, laying back down and letting himself be mesmerized by the candles flickering above him. Neither Reiner nor Bertolt had come down to the basement for lessons, and Annie hadn't made any attempts at conversation after dinner.

_Wait…_ He thought, _Where were those two at dinner?_ He remembered looking around the dining hall at the time for them, before Mikasa urged him to drop it. Annie didn't seem to care about their absence, or if she did she hadn't shown it, but he found it odd that the two decided to skip dinner and their lesson for the night. _I'll ask them about it tomorrow… _He decided after a few minutes of silent contemplation. Without a clock nearby, he had no idea how long he'd been in his cell, nor did he how late it was, but he decided that he should try and get some rest for the next round of tests and training.

*_Sniff*_

Confused, Eren sat up again, wondering what he heard. Straining his ears, he heard another soft sniffle coming from outside. Making his way out of bed, he quietly creaked his cell door open, looking around to find the source of the noise. As he stepped out into the basement, he once again heard a sniffle, followed by a quiet breath, seemingly coming from the direction of Annie's room. Walking over to her cell, he paused in front of the door, pressing his ear against the tarp. To his dismay, he heard a quiet sobbing coming from within. Hesitant to come in, he tapped on the tarp, trying to see if she wanted to talk.

"Annie?" He whispered, tapping on the tarp again, this time making a small ringing as he hit a metal bar. For a moment he thought he heard her moving, but the sobbing continued on. Taking a breath, he opened the door, cringing as it made a squeaking noise. Peeking his head in, he saw she was curled up in a ball, face buried into her blankets. Deciding to try to get her attention one last time, he called to her, "Annie?"

After a few moments, she lifted her head up, hair messily draping over her face, but Eren could see the glint reflecting off her eyes as they stared into his. The two silently stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, before Annie finally spoke.

"You heard me." She said, clearly trying to hide the quaver in her voice.

Eren shuffled awkwardly, looking down at the floor of the dark cell, not bothering to respond. Before he could ask anything, she spoke up.

"It's nothing." She told him, knowing what he would ask her. Of course, the rivers still flowing down her face, coupled with the pink puffiness in her eyes told a different story.

Eren gaped at her response, shocked to see her trying to brush this off. "What are you talking about?!" He said loudly, causing both of them to cringe at how loud he was. Quieter, but still holding the same fierceness, he continued, "You were crying yourself to sleep just now! How can you say you're fine?"

Annie looked down at the wet spot of the blanket she had been crying into, knowing Eren wouldn't leave her be. Clutching the blanket over herself, she caved. "Close the door." She said, reaching down beside her bed to one of her bags, revealing her bare arm and shoulder. Embarrassed, Eren closed the door and turned around against the wall. After a minute, the door opened up, revealing Annie, her hair still messily strewn across her face, but wearing a grey long sleeved shirt with matching pants, standing in the entrance. Wordlessly, she walked back over to her bed, sitting cross-legged and folding her arms. Taking it as close to an invitation as he'll get, Eren stepped inside, seating himself on the other side of the bed.

"Why were you crying?" Eren asked, wanting to work past Annie's offhanded remarks, "And don't just tell me it's nothing."

Annie looked down, "Look, Eren. It's nice that you think you can help me out, but this wouldn't be the first night I've cried myself to sleep." She explained, before muttering under her breath, "Not by a long shot…"

Eren scooted closer, "Annie, please." He pressed on, looking into her eyes. "Tell me why."

Seeing no way out of the conversation, she took a deep breath. "Eren, we live in a world where our lives can end without warning." She told him, "Monsters are real, but you know what's even worse? I'm backed into a corner by those monsters, and even the wall I've run to is turning against me. My _comrades_ are afraid of me and don't even trust me." A whimper escaped her lips, "I'm alone in this world, Eren. And revealing that I'm part monster isn't doing me any favors."

At that, Eren instinctively lunged forward, wrapping Annie in a tight hug. Instinctively, Annie tried to fight her way out of it, wanting to floor him for shocking her like that and invading her personal space. But as she tried struggling, he rested his head against hers, whispering into her ear. "You're not alone, Annie." He said, "I'm here with you now, and I'll have your back as long as you need it."

Annie stopped struggling, letting his words sink in. Slowly, she pulled herself away from Eren, who was staring at her with complete sincerity. She almost immediately looked away from him, as she was getting an uneasy feeling in her gut, and her heart started beating faster than usual. She was hoping he'd take a hint and leave her be, but part of her was hoping he'd hold her close, looking into her eyes and-

_What the hell is wrong with me?_ She thought angrily, letting her head sag down, _A moment ago I wanted to knock him into the ground and break his arm, and now I'm melting under his gaze…_ She didn't even want to shake her head to clear the thoughts, lest she get Eren to continue his soft remarks and make her do something she didn't want to do.

_But… Would it be that bad? Unlike the others, he actually treats me like a person. Hell, I've known Reiner and Bertolt since we were children, and even they act like I'm a ticking time bomb…_ She paused for a moment, _Okay, they're right for thinking that, but Reiner goes out of his way to bug me, and Bertolt shies away every time I even _look_ at him…_

She sighed internally, _It could be worth a shot. If I can take on a titan without ODM gear, I shouldn't have a problem with this…_ Brushing her hair out of the way, she looked up at Eren, who was staring at her with a confused look. Without warning, she grabbed his shoulders, causing him to flinch back in surprise. Slowly and awkwardly, she pulled the two of them closer together, until the tips of their nose were about to touch. Seeing how Eren was currently tense with fear, she realized that she was still staring at him impassively, and gave him a small smile. As he opened his mouth to ask what she was doing, she closed the gap, pressing her lips against his and wrapping her arms around him. Her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest as she led Eren in the kiss.

As soon as it had started, Eren pushed Annie away from him, confusion and fear carved into his face, completely contrasting with Annie's almost dreamy expression. Eventually Eren found himself able to use his mouth, "A-Annie! What's gotten into you?" He stammered, his face turning dark red from what had just happened.

Realizing too late she crossed the line, she ducked her head into her knees to hide her embarrassment, hoping she would die then and there to avoid the conversation that was to follow. What she didn't expect was to feel a hand on her shoulder.

"Annie?" She heard Eren ask, his voice much softer than before. Looking up, she saw he was staring at her, still confused, but fear had left his expression. He gave her a smile as her crystal eyes stared back into his. Unfortunately, the smile soon disappeared, and he asked the question she saw coming from a mile away:

"What do you want from me?"

She sighed, resting her chin against her knees in thought. "I used to be so good at hiding my emotions." She said, "It got to the point where I completely disconnected myself from them. But then Trost happened… All those lives swatted out, some of them people I acquainted myself with over the years of training. Mina, Ruth… Marco…" She felt a pang of guilt, but continued, "When the time came for cleanup, I found myself unable to help as I stared at Ruth's body. Reiner wound up having to drag what was left of her while I stood there, frozen. All of those barriers I built around myself to keep myself distant began cracking. I don't even know what to do with these things anymore; it's been so long…" She paused, looking up at Eren, "When you hugged me just now, I naturally wanted to knock you onto the ground and break your arms for touching me. But you started talking, and my heart started beating around, I felt lightheaded, and even _flattered_. Next thing I knew, I started thinking about wanting to kiss. I went along with it; it just felt right to do so."

Eren placed a hand against her cheek, feeling Annie instinctively flinch at the contact. After a few moments of contemplation he asked her, "So what now?"

Annie looked at him, slowly regaining her composure, "We can try things out, if you'll be willing to put up with me." At his confused look, she explained, "I will be a bitch at times. I will try to keep my feelings to myself. You might think I'm apathetic about your feelings as well, or you might think I'm overbearing with you. I will not go easy on you during training because we're together. There's a lot of baggage with me, you should know that by now."

Eren looked away for a moment, unsure of how to process the information. Slowly, he responded, "Annie… Do you think this is a good idea?"

"No," She said, shaking her head for emphasis, "Forming emotional attachments with people on the front line is probably the worst decision anyone can make." She paused for a moment, "But it's a bit too late to be trying to make right choices."

"What do you mean?"

"You decided to join the military, aiming for the branch with the highest mortality rate to kill as many titans as possible, and see the outside world." She told him, "I decided to quit the safest position in the military to join the Survey Corps to teach you, and went on to admit that I could transform into a titan so I could fully accomplish this task, even though I'm going against our original plan of secrecy as well as every bit of common sense. Neither of us have any good decisions under our belt, and being together will just be another notch to add."

"But there was something good about our choices." Eren countered, "If I had never joined the military, Wall Rose would have fallen. And that was with just one shifter. With both of us, I wouldn't be surprised if Wall Maria was reclaimed by winter."

Annie allowed his words to sink in, before smirking, "So you're saying you like making terrible decisions?"

"I was defending our decisions, Annie." Eren replied, a smirk crossing his own face. "If we were able to make good out of those choices, then…" Eren trailed off, his face growing flustered, "Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea…"

Annie's face almost instantly grew a pink shade at his response, her smirk faltering. Feeling the uncomfortable rise in her heartbeat returning, she cast her gaze down to the floor, "Maybe…"

Wordlessly, Eren leaned over, wrapping his arms around Annie in a tight squeeze and resting his head against hers affectionately. After a few moments, he pulled away, giving her a goofy grin that almost made her want to punch him in the face.

Almost.

"I'll see you in the morning." He said, standing up and walking out of the room, leaving Annie alone in the darkness. Unable to comprehend all that had happened, and tired from the previous activities that day, Annie collapsed back into bed, sleep instantly taking hold.

* * *

Annie awoke to finding herself being violently shaken. Without hesitation, she immediately grabbed the arms shaking her, twisting them as she shot up to stare her attacker in the eye.

Only to see Eren looking back at her with a frightened gaze. Sighing in frustration, Annie decided to let this one slide. "What?" She said, trying to hold back any venom that would slip into her words.

"You should really get up now." Eren urged, "We're starting to run late for breakfast, and last time I missed that Levi gave me a harsh wakeup call."

Annie gave him an unimpressed stare, "Harsher than being shaken like a doll?"

"He dropped a crate filled with sand onto my chest." He said, visibly cringing at the memory. At the continued deadpan, he hastily added "I'm not kidding! I have the crate in my cell!" This got her attention, and she immediately stood up and walked out of her cell, leaving a confused Eren kneeling in front of Annie's bed. A few minutes later, she returned, her face once again taking on a look of fury.

Before Annie could say anything, Eren stood up and held his hands up, "Annie, it wasn't anything personal. He's usually like this with everyone, even his equals." His explanation seemed to calm her down, but Eren could tell that she was still angry. "It was nothing compared to what Shadis would do to us when we messed up, you know that."

Annie grunted a quiet "fine" before pushing Eren out of the cell and slamming the door. Deciding to wait for her outside the basement, he made his way upstairs, only to find himself face to face with Jean.

"What do you want?" Eren grumbled, feeling a mix of anger and guilt rising up.

Jean raised his hands defensively, "Look, Eren, I came here to apologize." Seeing Eren's expression change to one of surprise and mild confusion, he continued, "It was wrong for me to put you on the spot like that, it's just after all that's happened-"

"I forgive you." Eren interrupted, causing Jean to almost reel back in shock.

"Wha- Just like that?" He stammered, wondering how he could brush off what he said.

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like you were wrong at the time. With me going rogue, and so many of our friends dying, I'm surprised more of you guys weren't on my ass." He told him.

"You know more of these guys have your back than they do mine. You've known Armin and Mikasa for years, Reiner and Bertolt always saw potential in you, you're on the same tier of comedic relief as Connie and Sasha, and you know how much Krista cares about you." Jean said, the last name causing Eren to snort in amusement.

"Name anybody that Krista _doesn't_ care about." Eren joked, "That'd be a real front page story."

The two laughed for a moment before Jean returned to his point, "You know what I mean." He said, holding out his hand, "Can we put all of this behind us?"

Eren looked down at the hand for a moment before clasping it with his own, giving Jean all the answers he needed. The two shared a nod, before Jean turned around and began walking towards the dining hall. Eren smirked as his comrade turned the corner, "Who would've thought Jean would be a bigger man."

"He wasn't the only one," A voice called from behind, causing Eren to jump in surprise, only to see Annie making her way up the stairs.

"How so?" Eren asked, unsure of what she was getting at.

"You could have just as easily turned down his apology, or socked him for what he did." She replied nonchalantly, adjusting the bun in her hair. "Frankly, after everything he's done, he deserves it."

Eren smirks, "Hatred isn't always the way to go about things." He told her.

"Oh? Annie wondered, "What happened to the boy in the training corps who wanted to 'kill every last titan?'"

Eren's expression fell, "It was my first night here. I met somebody who'd dedicated decades of hatred to fuel their will to fight."

"Levi?" Annie guessed.

"Hange." He corrected, causing Annie to tilt her head. Seeing this gesture, he continued, "She fought out of the rage she felt towards the Titans and the deaths of her fellow humans as her drive to continue fighting. Eventually, she came to realize that their failure to move forward may have been caused by her hatred, and she changed her drive to one of compassion and knowledge."

Annie looked down, "Her drive was her downfall…" She muttered.

"Hey," Eren cooed, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Let's head to the dining hall, okay?"

"Alright," Annie replied, "I could use a bite to eat before training."

The two began making their way to the dining hall in silence, due to Annie shooting down every attempt Eren made at small talk with short, final answers. Once the two entered the dining hall, they grabbed their breakfast, Annie silently advising Eren on his diet for pre-shifting and regenerating. As the two sat down with their friends, Eren finally noticed all eyeballs were trained on him and Annie.

"What?" He asked, growing uncomfortable with the attention.

Armin was the first to speak up, "Uh… Eren? You and Annie…"

Annie looked over to him, "Yeah? I caught up with him after Jean gave his 'heartfelt apology.'" She explained, letting go of Eren's hand to make air-

The two of them flinched as reality hit them: they had been holding hands.

In the dining hall.

_With everyone watching._

Eyes quickly scanning the room, Annie realized that the whole dining hall was looking at the two of them, a wide range of expressions on their faces. Turning to her table, she saw Armin's brain was fizzling out behind his eyes, Reiner had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, Bertolt had a look of mild surprise mixed with something else, and Mikasa's pale complexion had turned a dark red, distracting her from any of the Oriental girl's true emotions.

Wanting to get the attention off of them, Annie opened her mouth to speak:

"_Aah…_" She managed to squeak out. The response, coupled with the subsequent pink hue filling her cheeks, only solidified the facts laid out for everyone.

After a pregnant pause, Reiner broke the silence by slapping Eren on the back, "Congratulations, Yeager! Way to man up!" Remembering that Annie was still present, Reiner cringed, readying himself for a world of hurt…

Only to be greeted by a piece of bacon landing on his face. Lifting the bacon off his face, he looked over to Eren, whose held a second piece in his hand.

"Bad Reiner." Eren scolded, slapping the second piece onto his friend's face. Eren's reaction almost immediately diffused the situation, diverting the attention to Reiner, who wore an expression of deep contemplation as he peeled the second piece off. Once the second piece was pulled off, he held the two in front of him, making a shrug before eating both pieces. Despite the situation, the room quickly burst into a round of laughter at the events that had just ensued.

Seeing the attention was drawn off them, Eren breathed a sigh of relief, but the looks from his table demanded answers, though they were much mellower than before.

"So," Armin started, hoping to break any lingering tension, "How long has this been going on?"

"Yesterday." Annie replied, managing to slip her emotionless mask back on.

Mikasa turned to give Eren an unimpressed look, "I don't buy that."

"I do," Reiner replied, throwing Mikasa off-guard, "They barely interacted outside of hand-to-hand combat training. That doesn't mean I'm surprised that it happened." His offhanded second comment managed to throw off both Eren and Annie, who exchanged confused looks.

"What do you mean?" Eren asked.

"After I pitted you against Annie, you started doing the drills with her more often. I saw that your moves and even posture began to mirror hers as time went on. Not to mention every time we were paired up you would steal glances her way." Reiner explained, "As for you, Annie, you wouldn't even do the drills unless you had Eren as your partner, and there's also the fact that you were the one who wanted to teach him your technique." Shrugging, he continued explaining his hypothesis, "Of course, it was obvious that neither of you would make a move at the time, as you both lacked the initiative to do so, not to mention the two of you were probably too deep into your goals to even realize you had feelings for one another."

Everyone looked at Reiner with complete bewilderment at his detailed observations of the two. Seeing the attention he gained, Reiner sighed, "There I go again, preaching like a true smartass."

"So you knew this would happen?" Annie wondered, causing Reiner to shake his head.

"I had my doubts." Reiner responded, "I knew the two of you unconsciously felt something for each other, but I also knew that those feelings would have to be dragged out of both of you, and there seemed to be a very small window of time for that to happen before you both went your separate ways." Pausing to take a bite from his food, he looked over to Mikasa, "That being said, even if they were dating longer than a day, that just gives us more reason not to pry."

Mikasa huffed, turning her attention to Annie, "And why is that?" She glowered.

Bertolt placed a hand on Mikasa's shoulder, "Please, let's not start this now…" He urged.

"Bertolt is right, Mikasa." Armin told her, "We don't need any bad blood within the squad. Especially not when we're supposed to be training together."

"But we're not!" Mikasa protested, "The few days that she's been here, she hasn't been to a single training session!"

"Mikasa!" Eren called sternly, "You're acting overprotective right now! Annie hasn't been training with you guys because she had to transfer from the MP…" He trailed off as he felt a presence behind him.

"We can drop the act now, kiddos."

Turning around, Eren saw Levi staring at him with an unimpressed stare. "If you're going to lie to your comrades, at least have the decency to make it believable." Turning his attention to Annie, he raised an eyebrow, "So this is the other one?" He muttered, his voice barely audible.

Armin's eyes widened, "Other… One?" He wondered under his breath, seeing Levi grab the two by their collars.

"You two are coming with me." Levi ordered, dragging them out of their seats. Begrudgingly, they followed their superior out of the room. As Bertolt and Reiner continued to try and calm Mikasa down, Armin watched Eren and Annie following Levi, their hands brushing against one another's. Though he didn't want to vocalize it, he was beginning to piece together what was really going on.

* * *

"I think you know who I am." Levi told Annie, tilting his head in her direction. "But in case you're as dense as Yeager over there, I'm Lance Corporal Levi Ackerman. After the military trial, I was designated as his conditioner after beating him into submission for an outburst." He paused for a moment to let that sink it, smirking at the girls expression darkening, "I want you to remember that should either of you go rogue, I will be the one to kill you. If you act out of line, I will be the one that will smack you. If you try to run off, I will be the one that will drag you back kicking and screaming."

Annie's blood began boiling at his remarks, but knew very well he was trying to get a reaction out of her. "I understand." She spat, hatred leaking out at every syllable.

"Good." He replied, before something caught his eye. Flicking his gaze downward as they turned a corner, he saw Annie idly stroking Eren's palm with her fingertips. Turning his head back forward, he began thinking.

_So they've fallen for each other. _He mused, _This could either cause problems or alleviate them. If we let them stay together, they have incentive to work together and with us, but they could try to escape. If we were to step in and break them up, they would resent us and likely run away or go rogue, but we'd be able to keep them more in line instead of appeasing them. At the very least the new one seems to be relatively reserved, if a bit easily angry._ His eyes looked towards Eren, who seemed unaware of his partner's caressing, _Eren, on the other hand, is the textbook example of a hormonal teenager. Of all the people in the walls to have such dangerous abilities, how did they wind up with two teenagers._

Turning another corner, he led the two shifters to a pair of double doors. Pushing them open, he led them into what appeared to be a meeting room, with a wide table in the middle. "You two sit over there," He directed, pointing to a pair of seats at one end of the table.

Nodding, Eren and Annie seated themselves, wondering what was going on. Levi seated himself on one side of the table; sitting at Eren's left side. Annie looked around, noticing several more seats were placed.

"What now?" She asked, causing Levi to look back in her direction for a moment.

"Now we wait." He replied cryptically, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a deck of cards. Pulling two out of the deck, he placed them on the table, making a pyramid shape out of them. Still focusing on the pyramid as he pulled some more cards out, he began talking. "So how about we get acquainted with one another?"

"Is this why we're here?" She asked, watching him place down two more cards next to the first pyramid.

A third pyramid, "No. I just think a certain level of trust should be had between a soldier and their superior."

"A few minutes ago you were talking about beating me into submission." Annie observed.

"Were you in my situation, wouldn't you do the same?" He queried, placing a single card down on top of two of the pyramids.

Annie thought for a moment, "I'm Cadet Annie Leonhardt, from Fionn."

"That isn't a city I've heard of." He said, placing another card on top of the pyramids. "Where is it located?"

"Southeast of Wall Maria." She replied, causing Levi to jerk in reaction.

"There are people outside of the wall?" He asked, placing two more cards on the new platform.

Annie paused, "There were at least." She replied, "I was sent here by my father before the fall of Wall Maria. I legitimately don't know if Fionn survived the swarms of titans."

"Did he have your ability as well?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied, "He trained me in Titan Shifting and martial arts until I surpassed his skills, then he sent me to the walls."

"And why would he send you here?" He asked, placing the last few cards onto the pyramid, completing a perfect card house. Before Annie could respond, the door opened again, allowing Erwin, Mike and Hange to enter the meeting room. Erwin seated himself at the opposite side of the table, letting Hange and Mike sit to his left.

"Good morning." Erwin started, "Now, to get things started, we're going to be running different tests on you today."

"Meaning?" Annie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hange cleared her throat and began talking, "For starters, we'll be doing basic medical checkups. Partly to see if there are any noticeable differences between you two and normal humans. Next, based on those results, we'll be running anatomical examinations to look into these differences. I will tell you now that I will not put either of you under the knife, even if it were revealed that you had two hearts and could live for a thousand years. At the end of things, I want to run psychological tests on both of you." She paused, pulling out a file, "As it is, there are already fundamental biological differences that separate you two from normal humans, regeneration and shifting aside. When Mike originally smelled the two of you, he noticed that you carried a similar scent that he's never picked up from any other humans. I believe that this may be due to pheromones exclusive to Titan Shifters."

Erwin nodded in understanding, "So there you have it. Any objections?"

After exchanging a hesitant glance, the two shook their heads. "None, sir." Eren stated.

"Very well." Erwin replied, "Hange, Mike, they're all yours."

As Hange led the group out of the meeting room, Levi looked up from his exponentially larger card house. "You know what I'm going to tell you." He said.

"Involving Eren and Annie?" Erwin asked, to which Levi nodded. "Entertain me."

Levi sighed, taking the moment of privacy to massage the bridge of his nose "The two seem to have started a relationship."

Erwin folded his hands, resting them on the table. "This could work to our advantage." He replied. "There is information that she's leaving out with us, I'm sure anyone can see that. If she grows to trust Eren, she will be more inclined to confide in those secrets with him. Furthermore, Eren's dedication to the scouts will make him less likely to abandon us with her, making it more likely that we will be able to reign in both of them."

Levi considered Erwin's words. "You believe she knows the Colossal and Armored Titans."

"I don't consider it hap stance that she holds no records inside the walls until a month before it fell." Erwin stated, reminding Levi of an earlier comment Annie had made.

"She said she came from a place southeast of Wall Maria called 'Fionn.'" Levi recalled, "We've gone on expeditions in that direction before the wall fell, but I can't recall any settlements, standing or abandoned, that were found there."

Erwin pondered the information for a moment, "I believe that at present we shouldn't press for more details. We will need to let Annie come out to Eren, otherwise we'll risk losing her cooperation."

Levi raised an eyebrow, "Do we really trust Eren enough with gathering this information?" He asked.

"I believe he's got a better chance at getting it than we do." Erwin explained, "I don't think that she will lie to him, and I don't think he would lie to us if there was an important development."

Levi nodded, "I respect your decision, Commander."

Erwin smiled at his old friend's faith, "And I thank you for it, Levi."

* * *

"Alright, you two. Have a seat over on the table. The doctor will be in shortly." Hange requested, leading Annie and Eren into a medical ward of sorts. Unlike the normal stone brick layout of the castle, the walls of the room were smooth and white, with the floor being covered in white tiles. The layout of the room fit with a normal medical clinic, Eren recalling that the Survey Corps was given the most funding in terms of field and station medical equipment, and took the moment to admire the various odds and ends of the room, feeling a wave of nostalgia from the days his father brought him to his workplace.

"What's up with you?" Annie muttered, noting Eren's reaction to the room.

Eren turned his head to hide his embarrassment, "My dad was a doctor." He replied simply.

Annie paused, "Was his name Grisha?" She asked, causing Eren to snap his head in her direction. Before he could ask how she knew his father's name, the door opened again, revealing Hange wearing a white coat and head mirror, with a stethoscope dangling around her neck. Following closely behind was Mike, who was wearing a matching coat.

"Okay, my lovelies, first thing's first; I'm going to need to submit the two of you to the Zacharias Test. Eren, if you would be so kind as to remove your jacket and step up to Mike." Confused by Hange's request, Eren cautiously hung his jacket on a hanger by the door. Walking back over to Mike, Hange continued, "Please hold your arms out to your sides." As he positioned himself into the awkward pose, Hange nodded to Mike.

On cue, Mike walked behind Eren and closed his eyes, leaning towards Eren. Once he was in position, Mike began sniffing Eren, slowly moving his nose around Eren's head, taking in the young shifter's scents. Annie, deeply amused by the spectacle, let out a giggle at Eren's clear confusion and discomfort with the situation, causing Eren to shoot a glare in her direction, only furthering her amusement.

"Turn your head a little more." Mike requested. Eren obliged, tilting his head all the way to the right. "Thank you." After taking a few more whiffs, Mike made a motion to look in the other direction, continuing to smell Eren from the new angle. Once he had finished examining the other side of Eren's head, Mike moved down to Eren's neck and shoulders, scrunching his nose for a moment as he reached Eren's nape, only to continue moving on to the other side after a few deep whiffs.

Once Mike had finished smelling Eren's upper body, he leaned back and snorted, giving a smirk as he reached for a clipboard and began writing. "You're done, Mr. Yeager." As he finished taking his notes, he gave a look to Annie. Wordlessly, she stood up and took her place where Eren had once stood, leaving her jacket behind at the table. "Hoodie too, please." He asked, causing Annie to sigh before taking the sweater off and flinging it over to the table.

Once again, Mike leaned forward and closed his eyes, starting by sniffing the back of Annie's head, making requests for her to turn her head side to side like he had for Eren. As he moved down to her shoulders and neck, his nose scrunched up again as he reached her nape. With her scent fully taken in, he leaned back and grabbed the clipboard again, writing down more notes before going back and writing something down on a previous page.

"Here." Mike said, handing the notes to Hange, "I believe my work here is done." With that, he hung removed his coat, folding it up on one of the counters, and exited the room, leaving a very befuddled pair of Titan Shifters and a curious Hange.

As soon as the door closed, Annie turned towards Eren. "Did I just have some really weird hallucination right now, or did we just let a grown man sniff us like a bloodhound?"

Eren blinked, "I think that just happened." He muttered, before turning to Hange, "Why did you have Squad Leader Mike smell us?"

Hange looked up from the notes, eyes already glimmering with wonder, "His nose is super sensitive, so he's our typical go-to guy for picking up trails, since we can't using hunting dogs." She replied, "And from the looks of it, you two have some very interesting pheromones." Seeing them both tilt their heads in confusion, she elaborated, "Pheromones are chemicals made by living things, be it dogs, bees, or even us humans. We make them to show that we are hurt, sad, growing, or that we're in the mood."

Seeing Eren blush at the last comment made Hange suppress a giggle, while Annie gave a confused look in Eren's direction, wondering why he was embarrassed. Deciding against teasing Eren further, she continued, "According to Mike, the two of you had some common scents that are specific to the two of you, but still deviate slightly. For instance, Annie, yours was more floral, while Eren's smelled more like spices, but the two of you had a close, almost alien scent mixed in that completely overpowered your human smells." Looking back over the notes, Hange quirked an eyebrow, "Also according to him, the napes of your necks seemed to have a strong pheromone that threw him off for a few moments."

"What does that mean?" Eren asked, worried that there was something wrong with them. Looking over to Annie, he saw that she held a similar concern.

Hange gave the two a reassuring smile, easing both of their nerves. "I have no idea!" She exclaimed gleefully, "But we can find out!" With that, she rushed towards one of the counters, pulling out several cotton balls, some pieces of sterile white cloth, and a container of water. Dipping the first cloth into the water and straining it, she directed Eren to turn around before pressing the wet cloth against the nape of his neck. Once his neck was sufficiently damp, she rubbed two cotton balls against it, placing them each into a small glass jar. After that, she performed the same task with Annie.

Picking up the cotton balls from Eren's jar, she held the first one in front of Eren. "This may seem strange, but if you can please take a deep waft of the sample." Seeing nothing more weird about her request than what happened earlier, Eren complied, leaning forward and taking a deep breath into the cotton ball. Once he was done, Hange gave him an interested look, "Well? Anything?"

Eren thought for a moment, "No, nothing." He replied, "It just smelled like a normal piece of cotton."

"I figured as much." Hange told him, dropping the first cotton ball into the jar. She then lifted the second cotton ball to Annie. "If you would?"

Hesitantly, Annie leaned into the cotton ball, taking a deep breath. Immediately, her eyes widened as she shivered for a moment, a blush growing on her face. After a few moments of heavy breathing, Annie calmed down, folding her arms across her chest. "Well?" Hange asked, slightly taken aback by the adverse reaction.

"I just…" Annie trailed off, "I just felt tingly down at my thighs, and I wanted to pounce on something." She said, turning her head towards Eren with her last few words.

Hange's eyes widened, already coming up with a hypothesis for the reaction. Hastily dropping the cotton ball back into the jar, she reached for the cotton balls from Annie. "Annie, smell this now."

Obliging, Annie leaned in warily, taking a deep breath in and out. Looking towards Hange, she gave a blank stare. "Nothing."

Hange nodded, "Like I thought." She said, "Before I have you smell this, Eren, I want you to step away from Annie."

Eren nodded, standing up and walking a few steps away from the table Annie was standing at. Hange raised the cotton ball up to his nose, nodding for him to take a breath. As Eren took a breath, his eyes widened, a furious redness coming from his face as his pupils dilated. Seeing his reaction, Hange lowered the cotton ball, holding Eren into place as he looked towards Annie with a yearning expression as he tried pushing towards her. Like with Annie, the reaction settled down after a few moments, and Hange released her grip, allowing him to step back to the table.

"Well," Hange began, "That proves it. Those were sex pheromones." Seeing Eren's redness, she gave him a stern look, "If I hadn't held onto you when you smelled the pheromone, or if you two had found out about this on accident, you probably would have taken her then and there." Reverting back to her carefree mood, she decided to move onto the next part of the exam. "Alright, Annie, hold out arm, please."

Annie snapped out of her stupor at Hange's words, previously being transfixed on Eren's neck. "Yeah. Sure." She muttered, holding out her arm. Placing her thumb against Annie's wrist, Hange pulled a pocket watch out of her coat pocket, watching it intently for a minute while counting under her breath. After that, she thought for a moment before her eyes widened.

"30…" She muttered, gazing up at Annie, "Annie, your heart rate is slower than most highly active soldiers." Deciding to move onto Eren, Hange scribbled down the number before placing her finger on Eren's wrist and counting again. Receiving the same number again, she looked down in shock. "Impossible…"

Taking the lack of attention on her, Annie took the moment to lean into Eren, taking a deep breath into his neck, moaning lightly as she trembled against him. Almost immediately, her heart began thumping around in her chest, nuzzling into Eren's neck as she began moving to wrap her arms around him, only to feel herself being yanked away by a shocked and angry Hange.

"ANNIE!" She shouted incredulously, dragging the female shifter to another table, "What are you doing?!"

Annie only gave a half-lidded gaze in Eren's direction, "My mate…" She muttered, before her eyes snapped open as she realized what she had said, a heavy blush forming against her cheeks.

Hange's mouth gaped for a moment, shocked by Annie's statement. Turning around towards Eren, she recomposed herself, "Are you two…?"

Now it was Eren's turn to be embarrassed, giving a weak nod in response. Hange looked back and forth between the two before slapping herself on the forehead, "Of course!" She exclaimed, "That explains why Mike didn't notice the pheromones before!"

Eren breathed a sigh of relief, "So, you're not mad at us?" He asked.

Hange sighed, "Maybe a little bit." She admitted, "I would have liked a warning that the two of you were together, but if it's recent then I suppose that can't be helped." She then gave Eren a pointed stare, "Don't think that I want you two sleeping together haphazardly, though. We're in the branch with the highest casualty rates and the job of retaking Wall Maria and the outside world; I don't want one of our secret weapons to be incapacitated because she's got a baby growing in her."

At the last comment, Annie shot her head up in shock and horror, "I have a baby in me?!" She shrieked, causing Eren and Hange to flinch, before the two gave her an incredulous look.

"What?" Eren exclaimed, "We've only kissed!"

Seeing Annie's look of horror hadn't subsided, Hange gave her a confused look, "Annie, be honest for a moment: do you know where babies come from?" Seeing Annie shake her head, Hange sighed, "After this examination, you two are getting the day off. I may be your superior officer, but I owe you this much."

Realizing what was coming, Eren silently prayed that the castle would collapse on them before they finished.

**WELL! Hange is giving Annie and Eren the sex talk! As a short explanation, Annie's obliviousness to sex is a product of three things:**

**1.) Her extremely combat oriented training during her childhood. Fighting and taking down humanity were her sole goals as a warrior, being a mother wasn't. Combining that with her leaving home at the age of 10-11, it makes sense that she wouldn't be taught about the human body beyond how to break it and how to defend hers.  
**

**2.) Her staying emotionally distant from others would make her unused to sexual attraction, thus the topic would never come up, and nobody would be there to walk her through it. Reiner, Bertolt and Eren were the three closest people that she had in the manga, and she only displayed more than a mutual respect for Eren (genuinely smiling at him and coming to him to teach him her fighting style) This also means that when she smelled the pheromones from Eren, she wasn't able to handle herself due to a lack of experience with sexual attraction and arousal, and literally threw herself onto Eren when the chance appeared.**

**3.) A little nod to the scene in the anime where Mikasa wanted to find out where babies came from, but her dad tried pushing the topic to Doctor Yeager. I thought it was funny as shit, even if he got murdered a few seconds later.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Differences

Some five hours later, a mentally shattered Annie and Eren walked out of the medical ward. The two made their way down the halls in silence, neither one willing to comment on what had taken place, nor did they have the ability to even make eye contact.

Finally, Annie broke the silence, "That was disgusting…" She muttered.

"I was the son of a doctor, and even his explanation didn't scar me that much…" Eren agreed, though shuddering slightly at the memories of the surgical diagrams his father had shown during the explanation. "I think she actually enjoyed giving you that talk…"

Annie responded with a grunt in the affirmative, "I don't think I'll be able to look at her without feeling filthy." She said, "Though it was an explanation..."

Eren shrugged, and decided to drop the topic. "Hey, Annie?"

"What?" She asked, turning towards Eren.

"You've been acting a lot more…" He trailed off, looking for the right word, "Engaged, I guess."

Confused by his words, she turned to face him, brushing her hair out of the way. "What do you mean?"

"Like that!" Eren exclaimed, "You actually asked me to explain! Usually you'll just give short responses or brush things off."

Annie looked down for a moment, "I'm just trying this out." She replied, "Because you're right, normally I don't give a shit about what anyone says. And I still don't." She looked back up to Eren, "But you do. If we're going to be doing this, I want to at least give you that same level of investment."

Eren stopped walking as he processed her explanation. Finally, he shook his head, stepping over to Annie and wrapping an arm around her, leading her down the hall again. "So you'll actually start making friends?"

"Let's be realistic here, Yeager." She drily commented, only to let a small smile form as Eren laughed at her joke. Seeing Annie smile, he leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, causing her to jerk back and stare daggers at him.

"No." She said darkly, before lightening her expression into a condescending smirk, "Like this." With that, she stood up on her toes, pressing her lips against his for a moment, only breaking away when she heard a cough from in front of them. Standing across the hall was Armin, who was staring at them like a deer in the headlights as soon as they looked his way.

"Oh, uh…" Eren trailed off, "Hey, Armin."

"Hey." He replied, walking over to the two shifters, his eyes trained on Annie. Annie let go of her playful expression, slipping back into her normal mask.

"What's up?" Eren asked, trying to keep things casual. However, Armin's gaze only flickered in his friend's direction for a moment.

"Mikasa's locked herself in her room." He replied, "She was pretty torn up about you and Annie. Reiner, Bertolt and I have been spending the last few hours trying to coax her out."

"What's it matter to her?!" Eren responded angrily, "She's not my mom, she needs to stop being so over-protective about me!"

"Eren, she wants you to be safe and with somebody who cares about you." Armin said, immediately realizing his mistake as Annie made a motion to grab him by the collar, only to pause mid-action. Instead, she opted to give him a fuming stare.

"Well tell her to grow up and stop getting mad at my choices!" Eren shouted, making Armin flinch back instinctively.

"Look, Eren." Armin explained, trying to calm down his friend, "You know she's sensitive, but she really just wants what's best for you."

"What's wrong with Annie, though?" Eren asked, wrapping his arm around her, pulling her close.

"I don't know!" Armin replied with an exasperated tone, pausing to take a deep breath, "Eren, I'm not asking for you two to break up. Just talk with Mikasa tonight, and try to listen to what she has to say. Convince her that you're in the right."

Eren sighed, "Alright. Thanks, Armin." He muttered, starting to walk past his friend again, only being paused by a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Armin was staring at him with a different look.

"Where were you two today?" Armin asked.

"Er…" Eren began, "Annie's in my part of the formation, so we have to be briefed separately from the rest of the groups. After that…"

Annie took her turn to spoke up, "Hange saw it fit to drag me and Eren off afterwards and give us the sex talk, since she picked up that we were dating." A shudder cascaded up her spine as she experienced a brief flashback, "That's not something I want to experience again."

Armin's face turned red, but he gave her a confused look. "Why would she give you guys that talk?" He asked, causing Eren to sigh.

"Because she didn't know what sex was." He told Armin, wincing slightly as Annie softly punched him in the side.

"Let's go, Eren." She said coldly. Not wanting to get on her bad side, Armin stepped aside to allow the two to pass by. As the two began walking away, he watched Eren wrap his arm around Annie's waist, pulling her close as she leaned his head against his shoulder. Seeing Annie's instant switch from being angry with Eren to softly pressing her head against him. Armin could only stare at the two in contemplation.

* * *

After blindly wandering through the halls to the dorms, Eren and Annie finally came across Mikasa's room, judging by Reiner and Bertolt tiredly sitting outside of a closed door. As the two approached, Reiner looked up in Eren's direction.

"Aye Bertl," Reiner prodded his friend, "Looks like Armin found them."

Bertolt looked up at the two, a relieved smile growing on his face, "Thank god…" He sighed.

Eren looked at the door, "Have you guys had any luck?" He asked.

Reiner frowned, shaking his head, "We managed to get her to talk with us through the door for a little bit." He explained, scratching his chin before continuing, "That was 3 hours ago."

"How did you guys manage to skip the training today?" Annie asked.

Reiner raised an eyebrow, "Training?" He asked, "There wasn't any today."

Bertolt placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Look, let's just see if Eren can get Mikasa to come out."

Eren shrugged, "It's worth a shot…" He muttered, walking over to the door. Knocking lightly, he called out to his sister. "Mikasa? It's Eren."

Silence greeted him for a few moments, and Reiner looked up at Eren. "Armin and I were thinking that she fell asleep since we last heard from her." He told him.

Contrary to his statement, they heard a call from the other side of the door. "Come in."

As Eren turned the knob and opened the door, Reiner gave Bertolt an incredulous look. "You said it was locked!" He whispered.

"It was!" Bertolt defended. Eren paid no attention to the two's silent bickering as he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Annie slid down against the wall across from Reiner and Bertolt, viewing it best to stay out of their bickering until Eren comes back. With nothing better to do, she watched Reiner arguing about how much time they could've saved if they checked the door, while Bertolt repeatedly insisted that it was locked. After a few minutes of fighting, it appeared they were back at square one, and Annie began to tune them out to see if she could hear the conversation in Mikasa's room.

As she began making out the muffled words, she was momentarily distracted by Reiner making his way over to her.

"Annie," He began, only receiving a glance from her. We need to talk about the mission. He said sternly, the switch to German fully grasping her attention.

We're not talking about this now. Annie replied, What if somebody hears us?

We _need_ to talk about this now. He told her, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. You've deviated from the plan enough already.

What do you mean? Annie held her emotionless mask, hoping Reiner didn't know the truth.

I know enough. You've revealed your identity to the commander, haven't you. Seeing his comrade gulp involuntarily, he grimaced. We were supposed to hide our true selves. It was a risk letting Eren know, and if he finds out who me and Bertolt are… What we did…

Bertolt walked over and placed a hand on Reiner's shoulder, Reiner. You've always told us that what we're doing is for the greater good. He said, giving a reassuring smile, If Eren is the Coordinate, we can finish our mission with no more blood on our hands.

Reiner nodded, turning to Annie, Has he shown any signs yet?

Annie shook her head, None yet. He can transform and retain his consciousness now, but he hasn't been able to experiment with titan abilities. I was planning on teaching him how to harden the next time he was able to go free to practice.

I think she's already taught him that part. Reiner joked to Bertolt, only to receive a forceful jab to the chest from a furious Annie. Once he recovered, his face turned serious once again, You know I can smell it on you, Annie.

Reiner, you and Bertolt should know better than anyone that I was only taught how to fight. She spat viciously, My dad never taught me about making friends, about boys, about anything other than knowing how and when to fight, and when to run.

Reiner sighed, Yes, and he should have taught you more than that. I just want you to think about this before you fully commit yourself. He urged, I'm not saying don't date Eren, but _think_ before you start thinking about choosing him as your mate. As soon as the words left his mouth, he found a second punch collide, this time bruising his jaw.

I'm old enough to make my own choices, Reiner. She muttered darkly, watching the damage done to his cheek disappear in a cloud of steam. And if we're together by the time we make it to the homelands, that'll be proof enough that he's a suitable mate. Seeing Reiner about to open his mouth, she angrily added, Yes, Reiner, I know what that'll be implying down the road.

Bertolt's face turned red at the implications, Did Eren… He began, only to flinch as he saw Annie's gaze harden even more.

"Hange gave me and Eren 'The Talk' when she found out we were together." Annie said, reverting to English. "And this conversation is done."

"Alright." Reiner conceded, taking a pause to exhale some leftover steam. "But you know what your priorities are." Annie didn't grace him with a response, leaving Reiner and Bertolt to return to their previous positions and wait in silence for Eren to return.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

"Mikasa?" Eren asked cautiously, slowly approaching his sister. Her head was tilted down, hair draping over her eyes, making it hard for him to read her emotions.

"Eren…" She muttered, slowly looking up to gaze at him with hollow eyes, "Why do you always turn down my help?"

"Help?" Eren resisted the urge to shout, "I just started dating somebody, and you're treating it like the end of the world."

"That 'somebody' would beat you up on a daily basis." Mikasa growled, "And you let her _feed_ you."

"Mikasa, we were doing combat training. Of course we would beat each other up." Eren countered, before holding up his right hand. "And the only reason she was feeding me then was because my _hand was cut off_." He realized he made a bad move telling her about the amputation when Mikasa gasped, only to grow a vengeful glare.

"_Who did it?!_" She half-shrieked, "Was it that pipsqueak from the trial?"

"Mikasa!" Eren scolded, grabbing his sister by the shoulders, "It was either they cut me out of the titan, or I went rogue and killed everyone nearby. Besides, I can regenerate, remember? It's not a big deal."

Mikasa took a deep breath, seemingly conceding to the ultimatum he had at the time. "So that's why you don't see Annie as an issue? You'll just regenerate any damage she does to you?"

"What the fuck did you say?" Eren growled, "Annie's never laid a hand on me outside of training. She may be cold to some people, but she's not abusive. The only person she's hurt outside of combat drills has been Reiner, and you can't say he doesn't deserve it."

"You just admitted that she's coldhearted!" She responded, "Do you really think that she cares about you?"

"She completely berated Olou in my defense when he brought up the teaspoon incident." Eren retorted, "So yes, I do think she cares about me."

"Teaspoon incident?" Mikasa deadpanned.

"The first day of testing, I couldn't transform for some reason after I bit my hand. After the test was aborted and my hands weren't healing, I was sitting with Olou, Eld and Gunther. I wound up dropping a teaspoon, and when I reached to pick it up, that task triggered my transformation. They thought that I had gone rogue, and if Levi hadn't kept them off me they probably would've killed me for transforming without permission. Not that I blame them. If I had generated more than a ribcage and an arm holding the spoon, I probably would've killed them just from the explosion. As it was, the table was destroyed and they were thrown into the air." Eren explained, "Olou brought it up, and Annie just started verbally berating him and the others for a few minutes until I told her to stop."

Mikasa could barely imagine the two events; Levi holding off soldiers Eren talked so fondly about from killing him, and Annie berating said soldiers in Eren's defense. Sighing, she looked down to her lap, "I just want you to be safe…" She mumbled.

"Mikasa, look at me." Eren instructed, "I'm not a little kid. I can take care of myself, and I can make my own decisions. Besides, if I ever got into an argument with Annie, I could just turn into a Titan and stick her up in a tree." Even though Mikasa was family, he didn't want to let her know about Annie's powers just yet, otherwise it would undermine any leverage his arguments had left. However, the last sentence seemed to do the trick, and Mikasa gave a vindictive smirk and giggled at the mental image of her rival hanging onto a tree by her jacket, screaming angrily and fearfully.

Deciding to wrap things up, Eren stood up and began walking towards the door, "Look, just trust me on this. Annie's not a bad person; she's just not used to expressing herself." With that done, Eren opened the door and walked out, finding Annie and Reiner eying Bertolt incredulously, who had somehow fallen asleep while sitting upside down, his legs slumped down next to his head as he blissfully snored despite the seemingly painful positioning.

"I…" Eren trailed off, "What?"

Reiner turned towards Eren, merely giving a shrug, "How he managed to adjust himself like that without waking up is beyond me." He muttered, "Though if I were to guess, I'd say… Light showers tonight, with a strong headwind."

Eren got down on his knees to inspect Bertolt's position, "No, his hands are tense. Definitely thunder."

Annie gave the two a befuddled look, "What are you doing?"

Eren turned her way and gave a goofy grin, "Bertolt always has these really weird sleeping habits, so me and some of the other guys started using them to predict the weather!"

Annie's eye twitched, realizing that the two were serious. "That is literally the stupidest thing I have ever heard…" She muttered.

"It's never been wrong before." Reiner said before pushing Bertolt onto his side, miraculously waking him up, "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

Bertolt jerked up into a sitting position, staring sleepily into the space in Eren's general direction, "What happened?"

"I managed to talk down Mikasa. Hopefully she'll come out soon." Eren smiled, before moving over to where Annie was sitting. Annie immediately adjusted herself to the new body next to hers, complacently leaning her head against his.

Beside himself, Reiner chuckled, "I never thought I'd see the day where Annie would actually find somebody…" He then turned to Bertolt, "When this is all over, Bertl, we should find ourselves some ladies."

Bertolt scratched his chin as if in deep thought, "I think I'd open up a tavern first." He replied, moving his hands in a panoramic wave. "Have one wall covered with a mural of me riding on a mountain lion with a stein in my hand."

Eren though for a moment, "I think I'd want to see the ocean."

As Reiner opened his mouth to speak, the door once again creaked open, allowing Mikasa to step outside. Looking down, she flinched as she saw Annie resting her head on Eren's shoulder, passively staring at her with her pale blue eyes. After looking around at the group, Mikasa turned her attention to Eren, giving a confused stare.

"Where's Armin?" She asked, "I thought he was here with Reiner and Bertolt."

Bertolt spoke up, "We told him to try and find Eren. Haven't seen him since he left, though."

"I'm sure he's fine," Reiner added nonchalantly, "He probably went to grab something to eat."

At the mention of food, Eren patted his stomach, "You know what, I could probably go for a bite. You hungry, Annie?"

Annie thought for a moment, remembering all of the horrors that had befallen her earlier. The horrifying details of arousal. The vomit-inducing explanation of childbirth. The common varieties of sexual deviancy. The _visuals_.

"I could eat." She shrugged.

Reiner and Bertolt exchanged looks, then shrugged, "It's a bit late for lunch, but I'll go." Reiner said, "It's been weeks since we graduated, and I still can't get the taste of that slop the Training Corps called 'food' out of my mouth…" Turning to Mikasa, he narrowed his eyes, "You're coming too. We didn't spend the whole day trying to get you out of the room just for you to slip back in."

Mikasa was about to protest, but her stomach gave a low rumble, causing Eren to smirk as he stood up, "Come on." He urged, "Let's go."

As the group began making their way to the dining hall, Mikasa allowed herself to lag behind, watching as Annie allowed Eren to wrap an arm around her waist, doing her best to swallow her pride.

* * *

"… And then the second guy said 'I saw him walking to the hut with an armful of pineapples!'" Reiner concluded, waiting a beat for Eren and Bertolt to get the joke before the three erupted in a roaring laughter. Annie merely rolled her eyes at the immature punchline, while Mikasa was staring at Reiner with a mortified look on her face.

"Oh, man!" Eren exclaimed, banging on the table with his fist "Another one, another one!"

After catching his breath, Bertolt gave Reiner a knowing grin, "I'll take this one." He said, holding up three fingers "So, these three guys are lost in a desert… Off in the horizon they see a-"

"How did these guys get lost in a desert?" Mikasa interjected.

Reiner sighed, massaging his temples, "It doesn't matter how they got there." He muttered, turning towards Bertolt, "If that one involves three ears of corn and a hag, you might want to save it for later."

Bertolt shrugged, taking a moment to take a bite of bread, "Here's one Connie told me." He began, "So, a woman goes to the doctor and says 'My husband is 300% impotent.' The doctor asks her, 'I'm not sure what you mean, can you elaborate?'" Bertolt paused, allowing Eren and Reiner to lean in. "'Well' The woman replied, 'The first part you can imagine, but he also burned his tongue and broke his finger.'" After a moment, the trio of guys burst into laughter, only to gasp in their tracks as a fourth person joined in on their laughter. Eren turned his head in disbelief, only to confirm that the laugh belonged to Annie, who was currently leaning against the table, shaking violently as she giggled at the joke.

Looking at her reaction, Reiner elbowed Bertolt, "Looks like you broke her." He joked. Seeing Annie was still laughing, he gave her a concerned look, "It wasn't that funny."

Once she was done laughing, Annie took a deep breath to calm herself. "I finally get it." She said, "I heard that stupid joke so many times during training and I _finally_ get it."

Seeing things settle down, Mikasa decided to shift gears in the conversation. "So, Annie. Where did Levi drag you and Eren off to?"

Annie visibly tensed, turning to Eren for directions. Sighing, Eren spoke, "They're friends. They deserve to know the truth."

Reiner and Bertolt both gave confused expressions, however they saw where the conversation was heading. Seeing Reiner give a ghost of a nod, Annie sighed. "Me and Eren are a lot more alike than you think."

"How so." Mikasa asked testily, folding her arms.

"We're both Titan Shifters." She told her, watching as Mikasa's eyes widened in shock. "I revealed myself to Erwin the day after I came here, and offered myself as Eren's teacher."

Reiner stared at Annie with false fear, "All this time…" He muttered, "And you never told anyone?"

Annie shook her head plainly. Eyes trained on Mikasa, she continued, "I also knew Eren was alive the second I saw his titan form." That statement legitimately threw off Reiner and Bertolt, as well as Eren. "Only two people in these walls use that fighting stance: Me, and him."

"Why didn't you bring it up at the time?!" Reiner shouted, partially playing along with the ploy, but angry at her withholding information.

"I wanted to confront him on it myself." She stated plainly, "He's been hurt during training countless times, yet nobody ever pointed out anything unusual about how those injuries healed. It's like his ability was dormant until Trost." She then paused for a moment, "My plan was to stay near him until he ejected from his titan, then lead him away from the battle until I could get some answers."

Mikasa grunted, "But what about the breach?" She inquired, "If Eren hadn't sealed it, the Armored Titan would have broken down the inner gate!"

"By all logic, he shouldn't have been able to." Bertolt replied, earning a confused look from Eren and Mikasa. Seeing he'd allowed himself into the fray, he continued, "Titan body parts are lighter than they appear to be, aren't they? If a titan could get knocked back to the ground by somebody as small as Annie, how on earth could one carry a boulder hundreds of times its own weight?"

"Does it even matter?" Annie asked, "I'm here now, and I'm teaching Eren what I can. I'll probably also be expected to help seal the breach in Wall Maria. Once the wall is sealed, I'm leaving."

Mikasa stared at the blonde furiously, "You're just straight up deserting us?!" She fumed.

"Actually, it might be a good idea if she did…" Reiner countered, placing a hand on Mikasa's shoulder, "Look at it this way: At the time, Eren was supposedly the only one of his kind within the walls. Now, not only are there two of them, but they're dating. If they found out about Annie, they'd likely separate or execute them so they didn't have to worry about the chance of them breeding." The last comment caused the couple to jerk back, shifting their gaze away from one another.

"Uh, Reiner… I don't think _that_ will be an issue…" Eren muttered.

"Eren, we know you, and we know Annie. We know that you're not dangerous to society, nor are you going to go ahead and cause a jump in the population of humans with your ability. However, they don't know that, and they will assume the worst possible outcome. That's why when your ability was first revealed, they thought you were working alongside the Armored and Colossal Titans as a distraction." The burly soldier explained.

Before the conversation could move any further, the doors to the mess hall opened, revealing Armin and Jean.

Jean looked at the faces of the small huddle of soldiers, "Did we interrupt something?"

Mikasa glared at Annie for a moment before responding, "Annie has something to say, isn't that right?"

Hesitantly, and without looking towards the two scouts as they stepped towards the group, Annie spoke. "I'm a titan shifter."

Armin visibly paled, while Jean's expression turned shocked for a moment before melting into anger. "What?!" He demanded, "After all the shit that went down in Trost, you didn't think for one moment that you should come clean to your comrades?!"

"It doesn't make a difference, honestly." She replied offhandedly, "The only thing I could have done even in my titan form would be provide moral support and a second target for the higher ups to aim their guns at. At the time, I saw my priorities as the orders I was given. Nothing extra." Technically she was telling the truth. Reiner had ordered Annie prior to their deployment to extract Eren from his titan body should he be incapacitated, while he would take over sealing the breach.

"You could have kept the titans off of Eren!" Jean shouted, "We could have lowered the number of casualties during that mission if you had gone with him!"

"Do you really think I would just be able to walk up to that coward of a captain, come out about being an even more skilled version of Eren, and explain a plan to use myself as a human meat shield without him trying to send every capable soldier he had to kill me?" Annie coldly spat at Jean, before looking away, "No, so I did what I was told to do. If things truly did go bad, I would have transformed and gotten Eren to safety."

"And the breach?" Jean asked, slowly calming himself down.

Annie shrugged, "I wouldn't be able to do anything about it even if I wanted to." She replied, "My form isn't built like Eren's, so moving the boulder anything more than a few meters would have been impossible."

"What _does_ your titan form look like, anyways?" Armin questioned.

Wordlessly, Annie undid her hair, waving it around as it cascaded down to her nape, allowing the bangs to cover her eyes before she dragged her fingernails against her cheek, carving a shallow copy of the marks on her titan form's cheeks. With the actions done, she looked over at the disturbed group impassively as steam began hissing from the cuts she made.

"Like this, around 14 meters tall, with portions of my body missing skin." She told them, before looking over to Eren as she re-tied her hair, "Next lesson: facial wounds, self-inflicted or otherwise, won't trigger a transformation. It breaks the skin where the ridges form before they start forming."

Eren blinked, "Annie, was it really necessary to cut yourself?"

"They asked." She replied offhandedly, exhaling a small jet of steam as the cuts in her cheeks sewed themselves together with glowing strands of light, causing Mikasa, Armin and Jean to jump back in shock. With the damage repaired, Annie looked down at her bloody fingers, opting to wipe them against the inside of her jacket before continuing her meal.

"Anyways," Eren casually continued, "Where were you at, Armin?"

Armin opened his mouth to respond, but was interjected by a confused and angry Jean, "How are you taking all of this in stride, Eren?!" He demanded, "She just tore open her face, and you're talking with Armin like nothing happened!"

Eren slowly turned to Jean, "In the past few weeks, I've engaged the Colossal Titan in combat, been amputated three times, _died_, been shot at by cannon fire, carried a giant boulder across Trost to seal a hole in the wall, been put on military trial, had the shit kicked out of me by Captain Levi, been stared down by four of the most skilled members of the Scouts when I accidentally transformed to pick up a _teaspoon_, and gotten a girlfriend who can transform into a fourteen meter titan." He deadpanned, "At this point, the only way I could be thrown off-guard would be if I looked up and saw the Colossal Titan falling from the sky ready to body press me."

For some reason, that caused Annie and Bertolt to exchange glances, before the former turned to Eren, "That might be a useful combat skill, actually." She mused.

Armin shook his head for a moment before facing Eren again, "I was heading back to where you guys were, but I got sidetracked and ran into Jean. By the time we got to Mikasa's room you were all gone."

"Eren managed to coax her out of there, and we've just been sitting here cracking jokes and eating." Reiner explained, "Which reminds me… One of these days I gotta check what we've got here in terms of drinks…"

Annie's gaze hardened in Reiner's direction, "No, you are _not_ making it."

"Spoilsport…" He muttered, taking a sip of tea.

"Well," Eren muttered, "We've got a few more hours of sunlight left. What do you guys want to do?"

A smirk graced Annie's face as she came up with a plan.

* * *

"Captain Levi, can Annie and I go do some training?"

Levi barely spared a glance in the pair's direction, focusing his efforts on removing a persistent smudge on a window, "I'm afraid I'll be indisposed for the next few hours." He grunted, "Get another babysitter. I believe Eld and Petra will be able to watch you two. Just be sure to go far enough where nobody will see you transforming."

"Yes sir!" Eren replied, giving a salute.

Levi turned in his direction, jerking his head as an affirmative to go before returning to scrubbing the window. "Every single time…" He muttered, looking back towards the smudge. "It's just you and me…"

"Come on, Eren." Annie prodded, "I think Petra's in the garden."

* * *

"What I still don't understand is why we have to go so far from the headquarters just to do training…" Eren mumbled, his voice barely carrying over the sounds of their horses trampling the ground below them.

"The Commander made it clear that if anyone were to go to the HQ when you were training, it would cause mass hysteria seeing two titans doing very un-titanly things, not to mention there'd be a continuous earthquake destroying the foundation for the entire session." Eld explained, slowing his steed to a halt. "There's also the fact that Annie's identity is strictly on a need-to-know basis. Given how the brass reacted to you, keeping the truth under wraps is the best way to handle things, don't you think?"

"He's right, Eren." Annie agreed, "They put you on trial for risking your life and saving Wall Rose. My resume isn't nearly as well-fortified as yours was."

Eren grunted a response, hopping off his horse and leading it to the trees where Eld and Petra had begun tying theirs up.

"So," Petra wondered aloud, turning her attention to Annie, "What are you guys going to do today?"

Annie turned her gaze to Eren, "I'm going to teach you how to harden."

…

…

Silence graced the group for a few moments before Eld and Petra collapsed onto the ground, laughing manically at Annie, who was staring off into space as the second meaning of her comment sunk in.

"Crystalize." She corrected once she regained her composure, "I'm going to teach you how to crystalize parts of your body."

Eren shook his head, trying to ease the blush that had spread across his face. "What do you mean 'crystalize?'"

Annie held her right hand up in front of Eren, curling her fingers slightly into a claw-like form. "Imagine if you could just kill a titan by clawing at it." She explained, "Less energy is exerted than if you were to punch and stomp it, and it's an assured instant kill." Stepping back, she swung her foot upward towards his head, only to stop inches from her target, opting to tap his ear with the toe of her shoe. "Or you can kick them, destroying the vital regions of multiple with a single blow."

"So how does 'crystallizing' help?" Petra wondered, sitting up from her spot in the grass and staring at Annie in confusion.

"It makes a shell around a body part that's sharp and indestructible." The female shifter replied, "Of course, there are limits." _Lies…_ "We can only focus on hardening one body part at a time, and once focus is drawn away from it the crystal falls apart." _Technically true for novices…_ "Only limbs can be hardened." _Please don't try to harden your nape… We need a trump card, Eren…_ "If a shifter were to try and harden their vital region, their titan's skin will literally begin melting and they will either die an excruciatingly painful death as their body melts and evaporates, or they will be permanently encased in the crystal." _There we go._

"That's disturbing…" Eld muttered, "Are you sure Eren can safely practice this?"

"I learned how to crystallize when I was nine." Annie deadpanned, "He'll be fine." With that, she turned towards Eren, "Transform, then put me on your shoulder." She ordered.

Hesitantly, Eren began stepping away from the others before raising his hand to his mouth and biting down. A soft crackle was the only warning the others received to turn away before their vision was flooded by the orange light of Eren's transformation. Having never witnessed a full transformation before, Eld and Petra gaped in awe as bones and flesh began forming from thin air, pulling Eren into the nape of the growing beast. Almost as soon as it had started, the light and steam ceased, and Eren's titan stood above the group, gazing down at them with an unreadable expression. Growling slightly, the titan got down on its knee, reaching a hand out for Annie, before laying it against the ground for her to step on.

Slightly relieved that he wasn't going to try and grab her, Annie stepped onto Eren's palm and gave an affirmative nod for him to lift her up. Once she was at Eren's shoulder level, Annie moved over to the titan's left side, grasping tightly onto his hair.

"Okay, hold out your right hand." She ordered. Once the hand was within hers and Eren's view, she continued, "I want you to tense your arm muscles for me without moving them." A noticeable twitch vibrated through the arm. "Good. Now with your hands." Another twitch followed through his hand. "Alright… Now the hard part…" She looked around their surroundings before spotting a sizeable boulder a ways away from Eld and Petra. "Go to that boulder, and jab your open hand into it fingers first, while focusing on not breaking your fingers."

After darting his eyes warily in Annie's direction, Eren's titan lumbered towards the boulder before kneeling down and smashing his hand against it. An impressive series of cracks reverberated through the air as the titan destroyed its hand.

"That… Could have gone worse." Annie muttered, earning an irritated growl from Eren as he lifted up his destroyed hand. Growling some more, the titan stared at the hand as strands of light began sinking into it, resetting the bones and regenerating muscle. "Alright, try imagining your hand like an axe or sword, and use the same focus you used to regenerate."

Grunting, the titan looked back towards the boulder, raising it's hand up high before bringing it down. Annie's eyes widened as she saw a momentary glitter on Eren's hand, only to be disappointed as it once again broke against the rock. Lifting the battered hand up to his face, Eren growled as it began regenerating, slower than before.

"_AGAIN!_" Annie yelled, a slight accent gracing her voice. Once again, Eren lifted his hand up, eyes narrowing as he brought his hand down against the boulder. Annie cringed in anticipation for the sickeningly wet snap of breaking bones.

_THWACK_

Annie's eyes darted in the direction of the boulder, where she saw Eren's hand embedded into its surface, a foggy orange crystal covering the hand and extending to just below the wrist.

"Scheize…" She whispered, watching the crystal flake away as Eren began pulling out of the rock. Slowly, she turned her head towards Eren, "We're going to have a lot of fun…"


	5. Chapter 5 - Storm

The afternoon dragged on with the Scouts going about their day, cleaning up and relaxing, unaware that two of their cadets were sitting on the roof, watching off in the direction that Annie and Eren went off in to train.

I'm not going crazy here, am I? Reiner mused.

Can't say for sure… Bertolt replied, What is it this time?

How many shifters do we know are here? The burly shifter wondered.

Well, we have you, me, Eren and Annie. Bertolt counted, before gulping, This isn't just roll call, is it.

That's just it. Reiner muttered, Something's not adding up. Eren carries a scent, and in hindsight I should have known it was more than just him hanging out with us. Have we noticed that smell on anyone else?

Bertolt pondered for a moment, Nothing we can't already rule out. Mikasa's got a slight scent, though she's frequently around him, and she's not his blood sister. Armin carries a slight bit of a scent, but that's undoubtedly proxy to me and Eren, considering he was crippled for weeks during basic training with two broken legs.

Are we thinking too narrowly? We've only been suspecting people that we and Eren interacts with frequently, and so far that's only gotten us false trails. Reiner thought out loud, What do we know about Krista?

Even with what Annie gathered from the Wallists, not a lot. Bertolt admitted, She's got a scent, but we can rule out her being a shifter, otherwise the church wouldn't have let her join the military.

True. The burly shifter concurred, She may have a bit of a scent, but that could easily be from proximity to us.

Bertolt's eyes lit up with confusion, Reiner, her scent doesn't align with yours or mine.

What about Eren or Annie's scents? Reiner pondered, placing a hand on his chin.

Neither of them interact with her. The lanky shifter pointed out worryingly.

Reiner's eyes widened in confusion, That doesn't add up! He angrily stated, It's not heavy enough for her to be a shifter.

Look, this is bugging me too, but we need to focus on our mission first and foremost. Bertolt told his friend, trying to calm him down. We have a likely carrier of the Coordinate, so we're already halfway through.

Yeah, but think about how many times they've transformed. Reiner countered, Walls only protect you when the threat is on the other side. Our target is bound to be awake by now.

Bertolt shuddered, Annie and Eren won't be able to take it on alone. We'll need to reveal our identities, and there's a risk of turning a search-and-destroy mission into a three sided war.

They should be concerned enough about our target to put aside our differences, and if Annie sides with us, Eren will. If Eren will, we'll have the support of a fair chunk of the scouts, at least until our job is done. A sigh graced Reiner's lips as he thought about the next part, There's a good chance that we'll have to fight our way out once we're done…

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now we need to prepare for our mission. If we find the missing link on the way, we could very well get an extra warrior. Bertolt muttered, before leaning forward towards the horizon. "Looks like the lovebirds are back." He added, switching back to English.

"That's another thing I want to ask, Bert…" Reiner replied, turning over to his friend, "How are you doing with all of this?"

"Huh?" He asked, "What, do you mean Annie and Eren?"

"You'd always be looking at her, you know? I just want to make sure you're not angry about it or anything."

"Reiner, I have no idea what you're talking about." Bertolt replied, "Annie's a comrade, nothing more. Now let's go."

"Alright …"

* * *

"I think you guys'll probably break Hange's heart when she finds out you were training without her." Eld joked, "Especially after Eren got the hang of that trick you taught him."

"Well she should be glad that the shards don't evaporate." Petra replied, patting the makeshift sacks of the aforementioned crystal she strapped to her back, "They're so pretty, even for something that comes from a titan."

"I'm still not comfortable with you guys collecting those shards…" Annie muttered, "Or giving them to Hange…"

"Well, we all need to make some sacrifices." Eld commented. As the group approached the stables, Eld slowed his horse to a halt before dismounting. "If it makes you feel better, they'll probably just sit around in a jar on her desk."

"It doesn't…" Annie deadpanned, hopping off her horse. "It really doesn't."

Seeing the conversation was over, Annie led her horse into the stables. As she made her way back to the entrance of the building, she stopped in front of Eren, who was staring off into space with a strained look.

"It won't work, Eren. I've tried." She chided, figuring that he was trying to speed up the closing of his ridges. "The longer you're in your titan form, the longer they'll stay behind."

"Still doesn't make it any less annoying…" He muttered.

Annie gave a condescending smirk, "Good, you're learning humility." She remarked, before her expression lightened up slightly, "You also got the hang of crystallizing. I'm almost proud of you."

"Almost?" Eren joked, "Don't worry, by the time you're done training me, I'll have managed to breathe a bit of life into you."

"You still need to learn how to talk to girls…" Annie commented dryly, before lifting herself up and pecking Eren on the cheek, directly over one of the ridges.

"_OW, DAMMIT!_" Eren cried, bringing a hand over to where Annie had kissed him.

"_DAMMIT!_" He yelled again as pain shot through the side of his face.

As Eren tried to resist the urge of touching his ridges again, Annie began walking past him, only sparing one last glance.

"We'll work on it later." She called, leaving a very confused Eld and Petra to tend to the cursing shifter.

* * *

"_WHAT?!_" Hange shrieked, "_YOU GUYS TRAINED _WITHOUT_ ME?!_"

Eren raised his hands defensively as he began to speak, but Eld quickly cut him off, "We kept an eye on them, Captain. Annie taught him how to use a new ability, she transformed and demonstrated herself, the two sparred for a bit, and we came back."

Hange moaned in disappointment, slumping into her chair as Eld talked. "How am I supposed to write a report on this…" She whined, before jolting as Petra dumped a pair of balled up cloaks onto the Section Commander's desk.

Hesitantly, Hange untied one of the masses of cloth on her desk, allowing an avalanche of cyan crystals to cascade outward. Picking up one of the shards, she gazed in wonder at the dimly glowing gem. "This… Came from Eren?"

"That one came from Annie." Petra corrected, before unfurling the other cloak and emptying out a collection of similarly glowing orange crystals. "These are from Eren."

A maniacal grin slowly grew across Hange's face as she looked between the two piles, before setting her eyes on a heavily disturbed Eren.

"All is forgiven…" She giggled, before grabbing a handful of the cyan crystals and briskly exiting the room.

"What…" Eren muttered, "What just happened?"

"I think we just dodged death row." Eld replied, "Anyways, you're free to go."

Eren nodded, stopping by Hange's desk to retrieve his cloak from underneath the pile of crystals before making his way to the door. Sparing a glance out the window, he watched the sun sink behind the horizon. Deciding he had enough adventure for one day, he began making his way back to his cell.

As Eren navigated through the hallways, he slowly began to register how large the castle truly was, as well as how little he understood of where things were located. Given that he had long since entered the deeper regions of their headquarters, there was a lack of windows that would allow him to regain his bearings. After making another turn, he sighed in relief as he saw a staircase descending downwards.

Just as he began making his descent, a hand roughly grabbed Eren by his collar before pulling him close.

"Eren." A female voice called from behind. Spinning around, Eren was surprised to see Ymir, staring him down with a bored yet intense gaze.

"Ymir?" Eren wondered.

"No, I'm Dot Pixis." She snarked, before growing a serious expression. "I need to talk to you."

"Uh, sure…" He replied, "What's up?"

Letting go of Eren's collar, Ymir began walking down the stairs, "There's been quite a ruckus the past few days." She commented nonchalantly, "Sounds like thunder, doesn't it?"

"Um, kinda? Maybe there's a storm rolling in." Eren lied clumsily, following her lead.

Ymir let out a dry laugh, "Yeah, must've been one hell of a storm yesterday. Especially since there wasn't a cloud in the sky."

Eren gulped audibly, but Ymir continued, "The weird thing is there's only two blasts at a time in these storms." Placing a hand on her chin in mock contemplation, she snapped her fingers, "But wait, isn't there a loud explosion when you transform?"

"Um, yeah, but…"

"So you've been training?" Ymir asked, earning a nod of confirmation from the confused shifter. "That's good… Must be a great way to burn calories, but I can't imagine why you'd feel the need to lie about it to your good friend Ymir here."

"Well, you see…"

"Unless there was something that the higher ups don't want us knowing yet." Ymir turned to face him, "Like _Reiner coming out of the closet!_"

"How did you know Annie's a Ti-" Eren stopped mid-sentence, clasping a hand over his mouth and causing Ymir to smile victoriously.

"Oh really? That's who the other shifter is?" She wondered aloud, "Well, since you gave up your sweetie's identity so quickly, I might as well come clean too." Grinding herself to a halt, Ymir spun around, grasping Eren's face and moving in until their noses were touching. "That makes the five of us."

Eren stammered, trying to process what was going on, "Wait, you're a… And you know…"

Ymir gave a nod of confirmation, "Yeah, I know about Reiner and Bertolt. During training, Reiner lost a finger to a lizard when our team was on a scouting drill. He claimed that it only scratched him, but I could see the steam jutting out of his pocket when Thomas tried to take a look at it, and little scratches don't bleed that much on white pants."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Eren cursed, "First I can transform into a titan, then they can transform into titans, now _you_. What next, is _Connie_ going to be a shifter?"

Ymir raised an eyebrow, "What? No…" She muttered, "As far as I know, we're the only five inside the walls with this ability."

Eren's eyes narrowed, "And I guess now you're going to tell everyone about the others?" He accused, glaring at the freckled girl.

Ymir raised her hands defensively, "Are you kidding? That'd get all of us killed. I'm suggesting this: tonight, we meet up away from the castle. We break down the lay of the land, and find out a way to… Help each other."

Eren pondered it for a moment, "Where do we meet up? And when?"

Ymir grinned, "Well first of all, we need to find out how to sneak you out…"

* * *

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Reiner asked, "For all we know, she'd turn me and Bertolt in at the drop of a hat. You and Annie will lose all reputation if it gets out that you know two more shifters. We let that happen and we all die."

"Think about it, Reiner. One more shifter in our group would be an incredible advantage." Annie reasoned, leaning back against her cell door.

"Either way, our hands are tied…" Bertolt muttered, "We've got no choice but to meet with her."

Eren finally chimed into the debate, "I don't think she'll try anything. We're all in the same boat, right? If she tried to reveal you two, she'd also be revealing herself."

Bertolt thought for a moment, "You might be right…" He conceded, "She'd have nothing to gain from throwing us under the bus."

"Anyways," Annie continued, "How are we supposed to be getting out of the castle, Eren?"

"There's going to be some heavy rain tonight." Reiner pointed out, "Possibly thunder. We have a noise cover for us, and I don't think anyone would be watching the exits. We should count ourselves lucky tonight."

"Well, since Annie and I are on lockdown, nobody can see _us_ leaving." Eren explained, "Ymir's idea was that me and Annie hide in some duffel bags. Reiner, you and Bertolt carry us out with some fishing supplies, heading towards the lake southeast of the castle. Once we're out, Ymir will leave through the balcony facing east, and meet us up on the shoreline."

Bertolt and Reiner both nodded in approval, "Sounds like a decent plan." Reiner admitted.

Annie scowled at Reiner, "If you think you'll be shoving me into a bag…"

* * *

Reiner exhaled some steam, letting the last of his injuries heal themselves before zipping up a violently thrashing duffel bag.

"I hate you…" An angry, muffled voice muttered from within as the burly shifter slung the bag onto Bertolt's shoulder. Neighboring the spot the first bag had taken was another, bulkier bag, still squirming slightly, but putting up less resistance than the first. Grunting slightly as he hefted the bag, he looped the band around his shoulder before tying on his cloak and grabbing a fishing rod.

"You alright in there, Eren?" Reiner whispered underneath his arm, watching as the bag slowly stopped shifting inside.

"… Yeah." Came the reply, "It's a bit tight, but I'll be fine."

"You want a book or something?" Bertolt asked, tying his own cloak up.

"Can't see my own- OW!" Eren jerked in his bag around the spot Reiner bumped into a wall.

"Sorry…" Reiner apologized, before making his way to the door. Looking outside, he saw rain heavily hitting the ground, huge puddles already forming.

Taking a deep breath, the two shifters began crossing the courtyard. Thankfully, nobody seemed to want to stand watch in the rain, so none of their senior officers were there to stop them from leaving the castle grounds. Once there was enough distance between them and the headquarters, Reiner adjusted the strap to his other shoulder, nodding for Bertolt to do the same.

"Passengers, we're going to be experiencing some minor bumps." Reiner told the two bags, before lowering himself into a running position.

"No…" Eren growled, giving their carriers the cue to start. Reiner pushed off, rushing forward at an abnormally high speed, launching himself forward and upward with every step. Bertolt followed quickly behind, his speed slightly falling behind Reiner's, but making sure to keep his cargo from jumping around. Loud sloshes and stomps fell into sync with the rain as the two bounded towards their destination.

Inside his bag, Eren was wildly flying around, banging repetitively into Reiner's back and side. Meanwhile, Annie was violently thrashing around inside hers, cursing at Bertolt every time his fishing rod jabbed into her side.

After ten minutes of travel, Reiner slowed down as they drew near the end of the open land surrounding the castle. Once he was under the canopy of the wooded area, he looked over at Bertolt.

"Okay, from here we can let you guys out." Bertolt explained nervously, "Can I get your word that you _won't_ try to kill us?"

Neither of the bagged shifters offered a response, only furthering Bertolt's paranoia. Seeing how pissed Eren and Annie would be when they exited the bags, Reiner spoke up. "Look, we need to meet with Ymir. In order to do that, we all need to be in one piece."

After a few moments, a sigh escaped Bertolt's duffel bag. "Fine." Annie muttered, to the relief of her carrier. Taking it as their confirmation, Reiner and Bertolt carefully lowered their bags before unzipping them, revealing their inhabitants curled in the fetal position.

Slowly, Eren and Annie emerged, their bodies stiff from the journey and covered in steaming bruises. Both bore resentful expressions as they glanced at their comrades, but softened noticeably as they reunited with one another.

"Look!" Reiner called, pointing towards a plume of smoke in the woods. "I see smoke. Looks like she beat us here. Stop lollygagging and let's go!"

Picking up their bags, Annie and Eren quickly caught up to Reiner, who was already making his way towards the smoke plume. Bertolt slowly trailed behind, swords drawn as his eyes nervously darted around.

After a few minutes of traveling, the group came to a cliff overlooking a lake. Eren smiled nostalgically as he thought back to the night he met Reiner and Bertolt, and how they hiked to a similar lake bordering the training camp. Gazing down to the foot of the cliff, the group saw Ymir sitting under a willow tree, casually feeding sticks into a campfire while gazing off towards the lake.

"She's alone." Reiner muttered, "That's a good sign." Looking around, he saw a small trail leading down to the lake's shore. "Shall we?"

Shrugging, the rest of the group followed suit, making their way down the trail until the rock and dirt ground transitioned into the sandy shoreline. Finally noticeing their presence, Ymir stood up, a condescending smirk on her face.

"Why don't you come on down here?" She called, ushering them towards the campfire, "Unless you like being rained on."

Bertolt sheathed his blades, stepping under the tree. "What do you want, Ymir?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Ymir replied, "Have a seat and then we can talk."

The remaining shifters filed under the tree, removing their soaking cloaks and huddling around the fire.

"So," Reiner began, "We know that you're a shifter, and you know that we are shifters."

"If you're worried about me ratting you and Bertolt out, you can save it." Ymir replied, "What I want to know is what you three are doing in the walls."

"We'll talk if you do." Bertolt responded.

Ymir's confident expression fell, and she let out a sigh, "A new life."

"What are you talking about?" Eren asked the brunette girl, "Are you from their hometown?"

"No," She replied, before looking at Eren with a dead expression, "Eren, did you ever wonder what titans really are?" Before he could offer a response, Ymir continued, "Once upon a time, they were people, just like you and me. Something happened, and people started getting turned into titans. Every titan that you've killed, or saw kill somebody, was a human at some point."

"What?" Eren muttered, "Is this some kind of sick joke to you?!"

Annie shook her head, "She's right, Eren." She explained, "Mindless titans have pilots, but they've been completely assimilated into their titan, losing all sense of humanity. There's a reason a titan's weak spot happens to be where shifters emerge."

With the horrors of the situation sinking in, Eren pushed himself away from Annie, running away from the group before vomiting violently into a bush. Annie quickly rushed to comfort him as he collapsed to his knees, while the remaining shifters watched Eren comprehend the situation with pitying expressions.

Eventually, Eren wobbled back to the fire, still visibly disturbed by the revelation. "What…" He began, "What does that have to do with you?"

Reiner turned to Ymir, "Yeah, I'm wondering also. Yeah, he would've needed to learn eventually, but h-" Reiner paled as the gears began turning in his head. After a moment, he spoke up, "How long…?"

"Sixty years." Ymir muttered, shaking slightly at the memories, "It was like one never-ending nightmare. The last thing I remember was a few kids…"

"What the hell?" Eren asked, "What are you even saying?"

Bertolt turned to Eren, a grave expression covering his face, "Eren, Ymir was one of the people who was turned into a titan."

"Wait, how is she here then?!" The young shifter demanded, "If she merged with her titan, wouldn't she be stuck like that?"

Reiner pondered, "There is a way for a mindless to regain its humanity." He told Eren, "If the titan can successfully kill and eat a shifter, theoretically they could gain the ability to turn back into a human."

"Which means those kids were shifters, and Ymir ate them." Annie concluded.

"All I know after that is I woke up in the woods that night, cold, naked, and defenseless." Ymir muttered, "After rushing through the forest, I came across some dead scouts in a clearing. I was able to put on a bloody uniform to stay warm, and eventually I found my way to Shiganshina. Titans were still flooding in, but it looked like the town had long-since been abandoned. I stuck around inside one of the broken down houses for a few nights gathering supplies when the titans went inactive. I managed to transform and clear most of the distance to Wall Rose, but I learned how the mindless titans respond to our titans, and was forced to eject myself and make a break for it. Thankfully there was a caravan of refugees and Garrisons, and nobody batted an eyelash when I joined the group. Once we made it to Trost, I kept going inward until I reached Ehrmich in Wall Sina. Kept a low profile there for two years, and joined the military before my luck started running out."

"So you've been spending the past few years fighting to stay alive…" Reiner summarized.

"Pretty much." Ymir admitted, "What about you three? There's no way in hell that three trained shifters would just happen to know each other."

Bertolt seized up at the question being turned to them. Annie visibly blanched. Reiner took a deep breath, refusing to meet Ymir or Eren's gaze.

"In order to understand, let's catch you two up on the going-ons outside the wall." Reiner began, "Bertolt, I think it's time we tell the truth."

Gulping, the lanky shifter nodded, looking over to Eren, "One hundred years ago, around the beginning of the war, the race we belong to was created. Because humanity had no means of fighting the titans head-on, our ancestors began researching the titans and where they came from. They not only discovered that titans were once people, but they also found the beings that created them: the Great Monkeys. On average they stand taller than normal titans, from 16-27 meters, and resemble apes more than humans. A total of one hundred warriors gave their lives in order to take down the first one, armed with only swords and spears."

After pausing to take a breath, Bertolt continued, "By getting the blood of the first slain Great Monkey into their bodies, the first titan shifters were born. And, on the field their battle took place, our holy land was born: Fionn. Even with the land being surrounded by steep mountains, something about the land naturally repels titans. Maybe it was the first Great Monkey being slain, maybe it was the first titan shifters being created…" He shook his head, "Anyways, the first generation of shifters built a vow that remains to this day: the warriors would fight to protect the non-shifters, hunting down the Great Monkeys and titans. However, at the same time, humanity found the walls. Nobody knew where they came from, but the non-shifters populated the lands inside, while our warriors stayed in Fionn."

Eren took the moment to raise a question, "But wait, if the battleground was the place that repelled the titans, how could you build a town in that area?"

Annie smirked, "The mountain range makes a wall, Fionn is the gate. The mountains our ancestors corralled the Great Monkey into formed a large circle, with Fionn being a break in the range that was large enough for the battle to take place, but still small enough to bottleneck the interior from titans."

Bertolt nodded, "Exactly. The break itself is 50 meters. While there's no exact knowledge of how big the area titans avoid is, we've never had a titan wander closer than 300 meters to Fionn. Anyways, deals were made with the royalty within the walls that we would hunt the Great Monkeys, while they would also dedicate an army to fighting the titans. That was the birth of the Scouting Legion. However, we didn't realize until then the massive censoring that was going on inside the walls until 40 years ago. The existence of titan shifters and the Great Monkeys never reached the public, world history prior to the war was destroyed, and technology after the ODM gear was stunted."

"That can't be right!" Eren called defensively.

"Eren, you had no idea about the Great Monkeys until now. Nobody could comprehend people transforming into titans, let alone them being on their side. There has been no development on better weapons or transportation since the invention of the ODM gear. The Scouting Legion is the least funded military branch, while the cowards off in the interior make the most money." Reiner rattled off, "If I were to ask you to name any language other than English, you wouldn't even know that English is the name of the language we're speaking."

"As I was saying, there was a huge conflict between the warriors and the Royal Government." Bertolt continued, "After a while, we were banned from even entering the walls, and any diplomats sent were murdered on the spot. By this point we had hunted the Great Monkeys to near extinction, when we picked up a lead that one of the last ones was lying dormant, within Wall Maria. After more research within the Wall Cult, we managed to figure out what the walls really were."

"Eren… Ymir…" Reiner told the two, "Inside these walls are thousands of mindless colossal titans, lying dormant, ready to end humanity on any given moment."

Both Eren and Ymir's jaws were hanging at this revelation, horror etched on their faces. Bertolt wore a grave expression as he began talking again, "Thirty years ago, we brought this fact to the Royal Government. They refused to evacuate the walls, they refused to let us take care of the problem. Ten years later, we sent in two prodigies to blend into the populous. They were the deciding factor in what the next course of action would be. One was our old Drill Sergeant, Commander Shadis."

"Wait, Shadis is a-" Eren began.

"Yes, Shadis is a shifter like us. His job was to guide a reformation in the Scouts and military in general. I guess putting the current leaders in charge was the best course he could take." Reiner explained, "I can't tell you more about the topic since we weren't on the same mission."

"Who was the other one?" Ymir asked.

Annie turned to face Eren, "Doctor Grisha Yeager."

Eren's eyes widened even further at the new revelation, too stunned to speak. After waiting a moment to let Eren process the situation, Bertolt continued, "While he's not a warrior, he's one of the finest doctors Fionn has produced, and even on his mission he found ways to return home frequently."

Reiner nodded, "I'm pretty sure half of the children born in the past twenty years were delivered thanks to the doc, myself included."

"Grisha's job was to locate the Great Monkey, and provide medical innovations for within the walls. He succeeded on both counts, however, a major tipping point occurred. The Royal Government was preparing the Central Military Police for a mission to Fionn. Essentially, the goal was to wipe out the titan shifters and gain total control over the people within the walls. Word was intercepted by Shadis, and he relayed it to the council. Research into the Wall Cult revealed that they had some sort of a power that let them control the masses, wiping parts of their memories and making them bend to their will. Dr. Yeager at this point began to work on a countermeasure as a ways to prevent war, and created the Coordinate. Using a sample of the dormant Great Monkey's blood, he created an injection which would give a shifter the beast's ability to control titans. However, this caused the Great Monkey to begin to wake up, and put the entire human population at risk. Because of this, our people had to force humanity away from it. A plan was devised to drive back the entire population from the dormant beast by breaking down the gate of Shiganshina, and send several young shifters in to find the Coordinate, and take down the Great Monkey."

Reiner looked Eren in the eyes, a deadened expression growing on his face.

"Eren…" He muttered, "I'm the Armored Titan, and Bertolt is the Colossal Titan."


End file.
